DALLAS – Two Lady Toppers collected Conference USA Player of the Week honors for
their contributions in WKU Volleyball’s two-win weekend in the Sunshine State.
Lauren Matthews earned Co-Offensive Player of the Week recognition while Logan Kael
was tabbed the league’s Defensive Player of the Week.
Matthews was recognized after dominating the road trip with a pair of 14+ kill
matches. She helped the Lady Topper squad end the second-longest home win streak in
the country while at Florida Atlantic, as WKU became the first team in 22 matches to
leave the arena with a victory. In addition to her 15 kills on .333 hitting in the
four-set win in Boca Raton, Matthews registered five blocks, including two solo
stuffs, as the Lady Toppers handled the team they were picked to finish behind in
the Preseason Coaches Poll back in August.
After a slow start in Miami, the sophomore turned it on when the Tops needed her
most. With WKU trailing 19-16 in set three as FIU looked to avoid a sweep, Matthews
rotated back into the match and delivered five kills and two blocks -during that
rotation – to secure WKU’s NCAA-best 13th sweep of the season. The Indianapolis
native racked 29 total kills on .377 hitting clip while tallying nine blocks for a
4.14 kills per set, 1.29 blocks per set, and an overall 4.93 points per set mark.
Junior libero Kael, brought home her first individual award of the 2019 season as
she was named C-USA Defensive Player of the Week. The Knoxville, Tenn. native was
nearly flawless as she anchored the Lady Topper defense to help secure WKU
Volleyball’s best start in program history at 19-1. In addition to her 20 digs, Kael
was perfect in serve-receive across 29 receptions and delivered a 96.8-percent
rating from the service line for the Tops. Thanks to Kael’s efforts on defense, WKU
held its third opponent of the season to a sub .100 hitting percentage on the match,
as FIU was stifled to a mere .063 hitting clip in the Tops. With Kael in the back
row, WKU put an end to FAU’s home win streak that stood at second-longest in the
NCAA, as well as terminating FIU’s sixth-longest home win streak in the country.
With this week’s awards from Matthews and Kael, WKU has now collected 11 awards
through the first seven weeks of distribution. The Lady Toppers are the only team in
the league that has earned an award each week and is also the lone squad to have
players recognized for each of the four awards.
Stellar performances from both Matthews and Kael helped lead the Lady Toppers to an
NCAA-best 19th win with the pair of week seven wins. With 15-straight victories, WKU
has also matched the sixth-longest win streak in program history. Standing at 19-1,
the Red & White also now own the best start in WKU Volleyball history.
The squad will travel to Middle Tennessee on Friday for the second installment of
the rivalry with first serve slated for 6 p.m. CT. On Sunday, the Tops resume play
in Diddle Arena against the Roadrunners of UTSA for one of just four home matches
remaining.
