The Towel Rack: WKU Soccer finishes home slate

The Lady Toppers soccer and volleyball teams split action Friday evening, and will both be in action this afternoon to end weekend action, and in the case of WKU soccer, end play at home for the inaugural C-USA year.

Soccer:

It had been over 500 days since WKU and MTSU met in a home contest on WKU’s campus, and the Lady Toppers won a thriller, 4-3 in two overtimes on Friday. Haley Baldridge picked the perfect time to net her first goal of the year, coming in the 108th minute to send the MTBR’s back to Murfreesboro with a loss. They now will take the pitch for the final time at home this afternoon against UAB, who is coming off a Friday night loss to Marshall, and who have only won two conference games all year. The match is also senior day for the lone senior, Allie Auscherman, who has played in 74 of the Lady Tops’ 75 matches since 2011, starting 55 of them (she’ll get the start today, making it 56, which is a tradition of head coach Jason Neidell’s to start seniors on their day). The Blazers have conference wins against UTEP and UTSA, both home wins, as well as ties against Southern Miss (on the road) and FAU (at home). The Lady Tops will close the year with three straight road games, and will want to start that stretch with a win at home, to finish their first C-USA campaign with a conference record above .500.

Volleyball:

For the first time in WKU volleyball C-USA history, they have dropped a conference game, after losing in four sets to the undefeated Roadrunners, a match in which Alyssa Cavanaugh recorded another double-digit kill match (16), Jessica Lucas dished 41 assists and recorded 10 digs, and lost by scores of 23-25, 19-25 and 20-25. The lone set the Lady Tops won was, actually, the opening one, in which Travis Hudson’s squad rolled out of the gates, crushing the ‘Runners 25-13. The focus stays in Texas, but shifts to UTEP, who is coming off a 3-0 sweep to the hands of the Rice Owls, and is only 2-6 in conference play this year (lone wins coming against UAB and MTSU in back to back matches). The Miners have been swept 11 times this year, but only four times in conference play, and twice to Rice. The matchup marks the first in the two programs’ history.

If things go the way I think they could…should…it’ll be a great day for WKU, and will help us much easier forget about whatever happened on the football field yesterday.