Awards continue to roll in for the 2016 WKU Volleyball squad as Rachel Anderson, Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas were recognized as PrepVolleyball.com Honorable Mention All-Americans. With the honor, Cavanaugh has earned a trifecta of All-America accolades this season, as she was also named to the AVCA and VolleyballMag.com teams.
PrepVolleyball.com based its selections on three factors: overall talent, an individual’s impact on her team and overall team success.
The 2016 trio marks the first Lady Toppers to ever collect All-America accolades from PrepVolleyball.com. Additionally, Cavanaugh has become the first athlete in WKU Volleyball history to earn All-American status in the same year according to all three organizations. The junior now has five collective career All-America nods.
Just behind her fellow classmate, Lucas now owns four combined career All-America honors after collecting a pair this season. Meanwhile, the PrepVolleyball.com accolade marks the first All-American nod for the sophomore Anderson.
All three were also named to the AVCA All-South Region team back in December and First-Team All-Conference USA a month prior to that. Cavanaugh earned Conference USA Player of the Year status while Lucas collected her second-straight C-USA Setter of the Year nod. Also in on the action was Anderson, who became the third-consecutive WKU athlete to earn the C-USA Tournament MVP award.
With the final stats compiled, Lucas ranked sixth across the nation with an average of 11.64 assists per set in 2016, a mark that also led the league and ranked 10th all-time in program history. Anderson was extremely efficient on the attack, recording the 10th-best hitting percentage in the nation in 2016 at .414. Anderson’s hitting clip ranks second best in Lady Topper history. Lastly, 516 Cavanaugh kills ranked 18th overall across the country this season while leading Conference USA and ranking as the sixth-most in a single season in WKU history.
In total, five Conference USA volleyball players made the list with the WKU trio joined by a pair of Rice student-athletes in Chelsey Harris and Madison McDaniel.
WKU put together an impressive 30-3 record in 2016, which included the program’s fifth-ever undefeated record in conference play. Additionally, three losses ties the fewest the Lady Toppers have ever suffered during a season (2005, 31-3). After compiling a clean slate through regular-season conference play, WKU continued its streak into the league tournament where it became just the second team to go undefeated and win the tournament championship as well. From Sept. 16 until Dec. 2, WKU did not lose a match, stringing together 21-consecutive victories for the second-longest streak in the nation at that time.
The 2016 WKU Volleyball season is being presented by the United States Marines. This season, the Marines and WKU Athletics are working together to promote the outstanding athletic and academic achievements of our female student-athletes. The Marines are proud to work with and support these future leaders of America.
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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Jessica Leifheit
Assistant Director
WKU Athletic Communications/Media Relations