Press Release courtesy of WKU Athletics
Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas have repeated as Conference USA’s Player of the Year and Setter of the Year, respectively, the league office announced Thursday. Cavanaugh has collected the league’s top player title for her junior and season campaigns. Lucas has now owned claim to the conference’s top setter award three-consecutive seasons.
Cavanaugh and Lucas join Conference USA’s most elite as repeat winners of superlative awards. Lucas is the first setter to ever win three Setter of the Year accolades in the league’s 23 years of distribution. Across all awards, Lucas is now just the fifth player to ever win three individual superlative awards during their career. Cavanaugh is just the fifth player in conference history to win multiple Player of the Year nods. During the history of the Conference USA superlative awards, only 16 student-athletes have claimed multiple awards including Cavanaugh and Lucas.
Making her case for back-to-back Conference USA Player of the Year honors, Cavanaugh leads all outside hitters in the nation with a scorching .381 hitting percentage. Racking up 408 kills on the 2017 campaign to date, Cavanaugh leads the league with an average of 4.04 kills per set. The Louisville, Ky., native collected three of the league’s Offensive Player of the Week laurels during the regular season after being tabbed the Preseason Player of the Year as well. Cavanaugh was one of 30 candidates announced for the Senior CLASS Award in early October.
Facilitating the second-best offense across the country for back-to-back seasons is Lucas. Helping WKU Volleyball to a collective .341 hitting rate on the year, Lucas is dishing out an average of 10.99 assists per set. After claiming her sixth C-USA Setter of the Week nod on Nov. 6, Lucas owns the most weekly awards by any player in league history with 18 on her career. The Seymour, Ind., native was also named one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award and has since remained in the running as one of the 10 finalists. She has also earned a spot on the Conference USA Volleyball All-Academic Team for back-to-back seasons now.
Lucas and Cavanaugh have both been tabbed First-Team All-Conference selections by C-USA all four years of their career. The duo has also already collected three AVCA All-America honors each entering their senior seasons.
The only other player in WKU Volleyball history to three-peat any league superlative award was Ashley Potts from 2011-13. Potts won three Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year accolades. Lucas is the first in program history to repeat or three-peat as Setter of the Year and Cavanaugh owns the same distinction in terms of Player of the Year nods. While the Lady Topper program has seen multiple players win conference superlative nods in the same season, Lucas and Cavanaugh were the first Player of the Year – Setter of the Year combination and have now done so back-to-back seasons.
WKU Volleyball will kick off 2017 Conference USA Volleyball Championship play Friday with a noon CT, first serve over No. 7-seeded Charlotte. All C-USA postseason play will take place from E.A. Diddle Arena.
How to Follow the Lady Toppers: For complete information on WKU Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter at@WKUVolleyball and head coach Travis Hudson at @TravisHudsonWKU.
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