WKU volleyball closes non-conference play with Tennessee Tech

After a less than stellar tournament this past weekend, and seeing their 10 game winning streak snapped, the WKU volleyball team will round non-conference play up tonight as they welcome in the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech. The Lady Tops are looking to keep their home record perfect and Tennessee Tech comes in with a 5-10 overall record, and are off a 2-2 weekend at the Spartanburg Courtyard Classic, where they beat the eventual tournament victor.

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In WKU’s tournament last weekend, the Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational (hosted by #25 Michigan State), they were only able to salvage one match of the three they played – a 3-0 sweep over Milwuakee, and lost to the host Spartans and eventual champions LIU Brooklyn. It wasn’t all for naught, though, as the ladies outhit two of their three opponents and finished with a combined mark of .246. Noelle Langenkamp was the individual leader in that category on the team, hitting .392. She, along with Heather Boyan, also lead the team in blocks, each had 11.

Freshman Alyssa Cavanaugh was named to the all-tournament team, leading the Lady Toppers in kills with 33 (3.3 average per set) and tallied double-digit kills in all three matches, including setting a new career high in her young career with 12 in the win over Milwaukee.

The Golden Eagles come into Diddle Arena with a bit of history on their side – for the first time since 2010, Tennessee Tech has had multiple OVC players of the week, with TTU senior Courtney Smith taking the most recent Defensive Player of the Week honors after tallying up 96 digs over the four-match tournament weekend, in which all four matches saw Smith have double-digit digs. On the offensive side of things, junior Cody Dodd was named the OVC Offensive Player of the Week last week.

Tech was led by a freshman last weekend in Kellie Williams, as she lead the team in kills in three of the four tournament matches (again, all of which were in double-digits), and recorded a double-double versus North Carolina A&T, in which she put down 15 kills while digging out 15 balls.

While TTU appears to be a young team with all the potential in the world, I don’t see how the more talented WKU squad doesn’t come out strong, especially after a disappointing weekend in Michigan. If they drop a set, I’ll be surprised. If they fall behind at any point in a match (aside from, say, a 1-0, 3-2, any early deficit), I’ll be surprised. This should be a quick night and night for righting anything that’s wrong before conference play commences.

How do you see tonight’s match going? Let us know with a comment below or tweet us over at @WaveTheRedTowel.

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