Matthews Named AVCA National Player of the Week

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Lauren Matthews has been named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week after turning in an exceptional weekend performance to help WKU Volleyball improve to the program’s best-ever undefeated start at 9-0 on the 2020-21 season.

“It’s great to see Lauren recognized on a national level,” shared WKU Volleyball head coach Travis Hudson. “I truly believe she is one of the best players in all of college volleyball and she has shown it consistently throughout her career. People see what a terrific athlete she is but it is her tremendous competitiveness that has helped her elevate into one of the best players in the country.”

Matthews delivered an extraordinary weekend series against Charlotte. After what most would consider a “great” Sunday performance of 14 kills, a .400 hitting clip and four blocks, Matthews was less than satisfied and found a new level on Monday.

The junior connected for kills on 23 of her first 24 swings of the match and deep into the third set was on pace to break the NCAA single-match record of .950 for 20 or more attempts. She finished with a career-high 25 kills in the three-set sweep of Charlotte for an average of 8.33 kills per set which went up to 9.00 points per set when factoring in her trio of blocks. Matthews’ .828 hitting percentage in Monday’s match is the second-best percentage of hitters with at least 20 attempts in all of NCAA Volleyball this season. More impressively, Matthews’ 25 kills are the most in a three-set match across the entire country this season.

This week’s awards come in following back-to-back sweeps of Charlotte on Sunday and Monday by WKU. With those six straight sets, WKU has now won its last 22 sets of action and has swept eight of its nine matches this season.

Matthews averaged 6.50 kills per set, 1.17 blocks per set, 0.17 digs per set for an outrageous 7.42 points per set and .630 hitting percentage across the two matches.

Matthews along with Hilltopper setter Nadia Dieudonne were named the Conference USA Offensive Player and Setter of the Week, respectively, the league office announced Tuesday. The Hilltoppers have now seen three different players account for five accolades so far this season, including a trio of Setter of the Week honors earned by Dieudonne.