No. 19 WKU claims 4 C-USA postseason superlative awards for first time in league history

Head coach Travis Hudson yells to his team to make an adjustment before they receive the serve.

Kaden Gaylord

The WKU volleyball team (28-1, 14-0 C-USA) continued to earn more awards from Conference USA on Thursday, as the league office revealed the Lady Toppers had garnered four postseason superlative awards after claiming the regular season crown.

The three Lady Toppers who made the all-conference first team on Wednesday also earned superlative awards, as Paige Briggs was named Freshman of the Year, Nadia Dieudonne was named Setter of the Year and Lauren Matthews was named Player of the Year.

To wrap it up, head coach Travis Hudson picked up his third Coach of the Year accolade in six seasons as an active C-USA member.

No. 19 WKU collected four of the six available superlatives for the 2019 season —  the first time in conference history a single team has won four individual honors in a single season.

After the team was predicted to finish third in the preseason poll, WKU won its fifth league championship in six years and helped Hudson win his eighth conference Coach of the Year laurel.

Briggs is the third freshman in WKU volleyball history to earn C-USA Freshman of the Year honors, joining 2014 winner Alyssa Cavanaugh and 2015 winner Rachel Anderson.

Dieudonne collects the fourth C-USA Setter of the Year honor for the Tops, joining Jessica Lucas — a three-time honoree (2015-2017).

Matthews marks the second Lady Topper to earn C-USA’s Player of the Year nod, and the third overall selection as Cavanaugh won the award in both 2016 and 2017.

2019 marks the third time in program history that WKU has had both the Player of the Year and Setter of the Year in the same season.

No. 19 WKU spent the final six weeks of the regular season ranked in the AVCA Division I Coaches Poll and enters the postseason on a 24-match winning streak that dates back to Sept. 6.

First-seeded WKU will meet eighth-seeded Middle Tennessee State (13-16, 6-8 C-USA) in the quarterfinals on Friday at noon.

The C-USA Tournament will be streamed live for ESPN+ subscribers.

Reporter Kaden Gaylord can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected]. Follow Kaden on Twitter at @_KLG3.