WKU volleyball will host the Hyatt Place Invitational this weekend where they will play a pair of matches on Friday, Sept. 13, taking on the 1-3 Marquette Golden Eagles in their morning match and facing the 5-0, No. 24 Dayton Flyers later in the evening.
The Hilltoppers will then take on the 6-0 Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 3pm.
WKU will be led by senior outside hitter Kaylee Cox, who has 82 kills on the season. It is a balanced attack from the Hilltoppers as senior right side hitter Kenadee Coyle has racked up 59 kills of her own. The Hilltoppers have been dominant from the service line with four players having five or more service aces, led by sophomore middle hitter Gabby Weihe who has 12.
WKU and Marquette have met four times in the past splitting the games 2-2. The last time these two teams saw one another was last season where the Hilltoppers pulled off a 3-1 victory.
Marquette will be led by redshirt senior outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton who leads the Golden Eagles in kills with 48 on the season, as well as blocks with 13. The offense of Marquette is set up by graduate setter Yadhira Anchante who has 147 assists along with four service aces on the year.
The Hilltoppers and Flyers have met a total of nine times where the Hilltoppers have a 5-4 advantage. These two teams faced off last season where the Flyers swept WKU.
The Flyers are led by redshirt senior outside hitter Lexie Almodovar who has 71 kills on the year. In their last game against UMBC, Dayton had a team hitting percentage of .320 where Almodovar had 18 of the teams 42 kills on the night. It has been the solidified block of Dayton where they have seen most of their success. The Flyers have had four or more blocks in each of their games with 16 in their five-set thriller against Northern Iowa earlier this season.
Illinois comes into the weekend led by the swing of graduate student outside hitter Raina Terry who has 96 kills on the season. Terry has led the Fighting Illini in kills in all but one game this season with her season high coming against Iowa State where she had 25. It will be setter Brooke Mosher setting up Illinois kills as she has 181 assists on the season along with 28 kills of her own.
The Hilltoppers will look to bounce back this weekend as they lost earlier this week against No. 16 Tennessee in a five-set thriller.
Sports reporter Peyton Reid can be reached at [email protected]
