Awards continue to roll in for WKU Volleyball’s senior duo of Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas as the pair has landed on both the PrepVolleyball.com and VolleyballMag.com All-American lists. Cavanaugh earned Third Team All-American status from the latter organization, becoming the first Lady Topper in program history to land on one of the three 14-person teams named by VolleyballMag.com shortly after earning the same distinction from the AVCA. Joining Cavanaugh as a multi-accolade winner for back-to-back seasons was Lucas who collected honorable mention status from both organizations.
Both seniors were named Honorable Mention All-Americans from PrepVolleyball.com for the second consecutive season following the first year of distribution in 2016.
Cavanaugh has landed recognition from VolleyballMag.com for the second season as well with this year’s third team nod after an honorable mention tab last year. Lucas collects her first honor from VBM. Lucas and Cavanaugh are the lone Conference USA representatives on either of the All-American lists.
Just over a week ago, Cavanaugh joined the short list of Conference USA volleyball players to be recognized on one of the AVCA’s three All-America teams as the Louisville, Ky., native became just the ninth player in league history to do so by landing on the third team.
Lucas also collected her fourth-straight AVCA nod, earning honorable mention status. On the same day as the AVCA honors, Lucas also claimed Senior CLASS Award First-Team All-American status.
Cavanaugh and Lucas become just the second and third players in program history to garner AVCA All-America honors all four years on The Hill, joining the program’s only four-time honoree – Megan Argabright. All three earned first-team all-region honors all four seasons. Cavanaugh became the first to ever earn Region Player of the Year status.
Of all players in the nation that took more than 1,000 swings this season – regardless of position – Cavanaugh owns the second-best hitting percentage with a scorching .357 clip. Among just the outside hitters, the back-to-back Conference USA Player of the Year led everyone. The Louisville native racked up 489 kills on her senior campaign, a mark that led Conference USA and ranked 28th in the country despite the Lady Toppers leading the nation in sweeps with 23. Cavanaugh closed her career with the second-most kills by a Lady Topper in program history coming in at 1,816 – a modern scoring era record. Proving to be more than just an offensive powerhouse, Cavanaugh also finished with WKU’s sixth-most solo blocks, 87, in program history.
Distributing the assists for those Cavanaugh strikes was Lucas, the WKU Volleyball career assist record holder as of her final match for the Red and White. With her eighth assist of the NCAA Tournament Second Round match at No. 6 Kentucky – on a kill by Cavanaugh – Lucas surpassed the Lady Topper record of 5,294 held by Melanie Stutsman. Finishing with 5,338 helpers on her career, Lucas’ mark will stand for a while. Facilitating the WKU offense to the second-best hitting clip in the nation (.332), Lucas also leaves her mark in multiple record book categories finishing ninth in the career block assists column with 251.
In 2017, head coach Travis Hudson and company are coming off their fourth-straight 30-win season (31-4), putting together a final mark of 123-17 over the last four campaigns. This year’s senior class also became the first group in program history to appear in the NCAA Tournament all four years of their careers after WKU won four-consecutive Conference USA Tournaments.
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
