The Towel Rack: WKU Volleyball puts perfect home record to test
What an empty, empty week it was when it came to actual athletic competitions on the Hill this week. But, never fear, for the dry spell is over, and another weekend of Hilltopper…and Lady Topper…athletics begins tonight. Again, the Lady Tops’ soccer and volleyball teams are splitting locations – soccer’s on the road and volleyball comes back to Bowling Green in unfamiliar territory, with a conference loss to their record.
There are only three regular season matches left for the Lady Tops soccer squad, and there’s still a whole lot to be determined about what’s in store after the regular season closes. With a 2-0 weekend last week, WKU moved from ninth to sixth in the conference, putting them in a spot for the Conference USA tournament at the end of the season (the Top 8 teams in the league advance). However, the Tops aren’t safe by any means, and are only a single point ahead of Old Dominion, the ninth place team in C-USA, so this weekend could prove to be huge. To top everything off, if WKU takes care of business and get some help from the rest of the conference, next weekend’s matchup with North Texas could decide the regular season champion, as the Tops are only four points currently off the Mean Green’s 12. However, no team has gone through what’s in store for the Lady Tops – road games versus both Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss – and won both of them. Things might not be on WKU’s side, but they certainly are possible, and that’s more than exciting.
The Lady Tops are now recycling opponents, and it starts tonight when FIU comes back to Diddle for the first time since the FunBelt days. Even with the loss to UTSA, WKU volleyball still holds the best overall record in the conference, and was the first team to 20 wins with their victory over UTEP on Sunday. The Lady Tops hold a 29-8 all time record against FIU, with the 29th win coming October third, 21 days ago, in a 3-0 sweep in South Beach. Freshmen played a huge role in that matchup, as they have all year, with Alyssa Cavanaugh recording 12 kills and Jessica Lucas setting 31 balls for the Lady Tops. The WKU defense held FIU to just 28 kills and a .104 hitting clip.