Meredith ruled out for rest of season as Lady Toppers enter final stretch
Lady Topper’s freshman guard Mya Meredith (5), puts up a shot thorugh the block of Old Dominion Lady Monarch’s graduate student guard Iggy Allen (2) during their matchup on Feb. 5th in Diddle Arena.
February 8, 2022
WKU (15-7, 8-3 C-USA) head coach Greg Collins spoke to the media Tuesday morning to discuss star freshman forward Mya Meredith’s injury and Thursday’s matchup against Florida Atlantic University (4-12, 1-9 C-USA).
Meredith tore her ACL during Saturday’s win over Old Dominion and is sidelined for the remainder of the season. Meredith was the second leading scorer for the Lady Toppers, averaging 12.7 points per game while being named C-USA’s Freshman of the Week five times. Defensively, she was one of the team’s best defenders, averaging two steals per game.
“She was just always in the passing lanes challenging or changing your shot, and she’s got good speed,” Collins said. “She had the quickness too. So that little speed and quickness combination makes her tough on defense. We’ve got players that can fill her void, and so that’s where we’ll just have to tweak our play a little bit.”
Collins believes that there is not one person to replace Meredith’s production, but sophomore guard Hope Sivori is the person best suited to fill the void.
“I do believe Hope Sivori has been playing really well offensively,” Collins said. “She’s given us a great spark coming into the games. She’s shooting the ball really well in practice. So I think she is the most obvious player to step in there.”
The Lady Toppers’ next game is Thursday afternoon in Boca Raton, Fla. They will face The Florida Atlantic Owls for the second time this season. WKU dominated FAU in the matchup 73-49 on Jan. 20.
In the last meeting between the two teams, WKU held FAU to a horrendous shooting performance. The Owls shot 16-of-49 (32.7%) from the field and just 5-of-21 (23.8%) from behind the arc.
WKU was dominant defensively in the interior, only allowing 18 points in the paint. The Lady Toppers held the Owls to just four fast-break points. Collins believes if they can mimic their defensive performance from January that would help their chances of winning.
“The main thing I want to see us do is to continue to pour the effort on the defensive and make sure that we’re pouring in the defensive rebounds,” Collins said.
WKU will play FAU on Thursday at 5 p.m. before coming back to Diddle Arena for a game against UTSA Feb. 13 at 1 p.m.
Women’s Basketball Reporter Joseph Thompson can be reached at [email protected].
