WKU rises to No. 16, highest ranking in school history

Austin Lanter

The Lady Topper volleyball team entered the 2013 campaign ranked No. 21 in the nation. After one weekend of play in the book, the Lady Toppers jumped up five spots to No. 16, the highest ranking in school history.

The five-spot jump comes after WKU went 2-1 at the Mortar Board Premier hosted by Purdue. The one loss came at the hands of then No. 4 ranked Southern California, who moved up to No. 3 after the weekend.

WKU did defeat Purdue this weekend. The Lady Boilermakers were ranked No. 16 but fell six spots to No. 22 after losing two of three games this weekend.

The Lady Toppers will be tested again this coming weekend as they face two more teams in the AVCA Top 25 — No. 23 Ohio State and No. 15 Florida State. Both games are a part of the Florida State Invitational Tournament.

The game against Ohio State will be Friday at 10 a.m. and WKU will play Florida State at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

The team is also slated to play Dayton later this month, who fell out of the national rankings this week after being ranked No. 22 in the preseason polls.

WKU is also ranked ahead of both in-state rivals Louisville (No. 17) and Kentucky (No. 21) in the most recent poll.