Western Kentucky flexed their muscle in the Conference USA this past week as they took home three of the four Conference USA weekly three awards. Seniors Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas along with junior Rachel Anderson took home the trio of weekly honors for the Hilltoppers as Charlotte’s Sydney Rowan rounded out the four honorees.
Senior outside hitter Alyssa Cavanaugh took home the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week award in helping Western Kentucky win four matches and improve to 9-2 overall. In 15 sets of play, Cavanaugh netted 69 kills (4.60 per set) while hitting .420. A season-high of 22 of those 69 came in one match against East Tennessee State.
The one feeding Cavanaugh the ball was Jessica Lucas, a senior setter for the Hilltoppers. Lucas found more than Cavanaugh too in netting 10.47 assists per set, including 46 against Pittsburgh in a five-set victory and a double-double (44 assists, 10 digs) against East Tennessee State. It’s been two award-worthy weeks now, as Lucas’ performance as the C-USA Setter of the Week gives her the honors for the second consecutive week.
The third amigo of the awarded Hilltoppers was Rachel Anderson, a junior middle blocker. Anderson takes home the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week behind 27 blocks in one week of action. That mark works out to be 1.80 blocks per set for Anderson, who also tied a career high by reaching double-figures (10 total blocks) against Pittsburgh in a match that Western Kentucky had 23 team blocks, a 2017 season-high for the entire country.
Sydney Rowan of Charlotte was the lone exception to the Western Kentucky dominance of week three Conference USA awards, as she took home the C-USA Freshman of the Week accolade. As Charlotte also went 4-0 on the week, Rowan totaled 3.73 kills and 2.91 digs per set to go with four total blocks.
All of the C-USA weekly award winners can be seen below:
2017 C-USA Offensive Players of the Week
8/28 Amanda Chamberlain, North Texas
9/4 Tatyana Thomas, Charlotte
9/11 Alyssa Cavanaugh, WKU
2017 C-USA Defensive Players of the Week
8/28 Yumi Garcia, Charlotte
9/4 Yumi Garcia, Charlotte
9/11 Rachel Anderson, WKU
2017 C-USA Setter of the Week
8/28 Sarah Bell, Southern Miss
9/4 Jessica Lucas, WKU
9/11 Jessica Lucas, WKU
2017 C-USA Freshman of the Week
8/28 Nicole Lennon, Rice
9/4 Chandler Marshall, Southern Miss
9/11 Sydney Rowan, Charlotte
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