The Towel Rack: WKU begins week with soccer, volleyball action

After an off day yesterday, the Lady Toppers soccer and volleyball teams are back in action, after splitting Friday night with a volleyball victory, but a soccer defeat.

Soccer:

The Lady Tops got offense from freshman defender Nahyo Jalajel to take the first lead of the game, but UTEP would score the final two goals, the second of which were in overtime, to drop WKU to 1-3 in conference play. This afternoon, they’ll face the 1-4 in conference play UTSA Roadrunners, who are coming off a Friday night defeat themselves, this one on the road against Marshall (the lone conference W for the Tops). The only C-USA team in which UTSA has defeated is the MTBRs. The ‘Runners have lost five of their last six, and given up 16 total goals in the slide, and Friday’s 1-0 loss was the first time they hadn’t allowed multiple goals since Sept. 12th in a nil-nil draw against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lady Tops will look to take full advantage of a team on a major downhill roll.

Volleyball:

The Lady Toppers swept Marshall Friday night, and look to remain perfect not only in conference play, but on John Oldham Court as well. The Mean Green are coming off a 3-1 road loss to Southern Miss, and have gone 2-2 in their last four outings. WKU got huge offensive performances from Alyssa Cavanaugh (who I’ll be shocked if she isn’t a C-USA Player of the Week come tomorrow afternoon) and Haley Bodway, who is back from a hamstring injury suffered against Rice two weeks ago, as they both notched double kill performances, while the front court of Noelle Langenkamp and Heather Boyan combined for 11 total blocks. If you’ll recall, the Lady Toppers won their second-straight Sun Belt volleyball tournament in Diddle Arena in 2012 against the Mean Green.

Hopefully this afternoon will bode better than Friday did, and we can see a sweep for Dear Old Western for a 3-1 weekend.