Three Lady Toppers have been awarded with Conference USA awards for the 2020-2021 season.

WKU senior Raneem Elgedawy earned First Team honors for the second consecutive season. As a sophomore, Elgedawy was named to the Second Team in the 2018-2019 season. 

This season, Elgedawy was absent for the first eight games, but wasted no time getting back to where she left off last season. In 14 games this season, Elgedawy has grabbed 10 double-doubles and averaged 20.9 points and 12.1 rebounds per game.

Elgedawy’s total number of double-doubles ranks second in C-USA and is the 34th highest in the nation, despite playing less games than most players. If Elgedawy would have met the minimum number of games to qualify for being ranked, her 12.1 rebounds would have been the top mark in the entire league. 

WKU junior Meral Abdelgawad has embraced being a support player for the Lady Toppers, averaging 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.7 steals per game. Abdelgawad’s 2.7 steals a game rank second in the conference. Abdelgawad has stolen the ball 60 times this season, which is the most steals in the conference and is 19th highest in the nation.

Abdelgawad’s 3.3 assists and her 1.16 assist-turnover ratio is among the top 15 in the league. Abdelgawad notched five double-doubles this season, four of the five being in C-USA play.

Abdelgawad’s seven steals against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 6 were a single-game high by any C-USA player this season and Abdelgawad also is second and third place in most steals in a game this season.

WKU freshman Hope Sivori is the last player to win Conference USA honors. Sivori took over the point guard role at an early point in her first season as a Lady Topper. Sivori averaged 9.7 points per game, 4.1 assists, and 3.3 rebounds. 

Sivori’s 4.1 assists per game rank fourth in the league and is at the top mark of any C-USA freshman and is tied 12th nationally for all rookies. That average also ranks as the fourth best by a Lady Topper freshman in the modern era.

Sivori dropped 11 assists against Bellarmine earlier in the season, which tied for most of any C-USA player this season. Sivori also dropped 23 points against LA Tech on Jan. 9, drilling six three pointers. Sivori also had a 20 point performance against Rice on Feb. 22, dropping 22 points. 

{{tncms-inline account=”Hope Sivori” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m thrilled honestly. I am beyond thankful for everyone who has been apart of my journey!!!❤️<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gotops?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gotops</a> <a href="https://t.co/luFhHbhjY2">https://t.co/luFhHbhjY2</a></p>— Hope Sivori (@hope_sivori) <a href="https://twitter.com/hope_sivori/status/1368974909125267458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2021</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/hope_sivori/status/1368974909125267458″ type=”twitter”}}

The Lady Toppers will be playing Old Dominion tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the C-USA Championship preliminary round. 

Women’s basketball beat reporter Drew Toennies can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @drew_toennies.