Trio of Lady Toppers Earn C-USA Awards

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Three WKU women’s basketball student-athletes have earned postseason awards from Conference USA. Mya Meredith earned Freshman of the Year and All-Freshmen Team honors. Meral Abdelgawad was named to the All-Conference First Team and the All-Defensive Team. Alexis Mead joined Meredith on the All-Freshmen Team.

Meredith’s season was cut short in February due to a torn ACL, but the Taylormill, Kentucky native had already made her case for the award. Meredith was named C-USA Freshman of the Week honors for the entire month of January, earning the award four consecutive weeks.

Meredith is the top freshman scorer in the league, averaging 12.7 points per game. She had four 20-point performances in 22 games played. In C-USA play, Meredith was averaging 14.0 points per game. On the defensive side, Meredith was averaging 2.3 steals game in league play.

Meredith is the second consecutive WKU rookie to earn C-USA Freshman of the Year honors with Hope Sivori earning the recognition last season. Meredith joins Sivori, Raneem Elgedawy, Kendall Noble, Arnika Brown, Crystal Kelly, Tiffany Porter-Talbert and Kristina Covington as Lady Toppers to earn Freshman of the Year honors all-time.

Abdelgawad has enjoyed a breakout season as a senior. The Cairo, Egypt native is top 30 nationally in five different statistical categories (free throw attempts, total points, free throws made, points per game and field goal percentage. She is the league’s second leading scorer, averaging 19.8 points per game. She has the second highest field goal percentage in the conference and the highest percentage of any guard in the league.

Abdelgawad had four 30-point games this season and 14 20-point performances, which was the most of any C-USA player. She scored in double figures in all but two games on the season. The senior has five double-doubles on the season.

Abdelgawad is second in the conference in steals with 67 total. She is the eighth leading rebounder in the conference, averaging 7.2 boards per game. She had six games with 10-or-more rebounds, including 19 boards against UT Martin which is the most by a C-USA player this season. She’s gotten to the free throw line 200 times this season, which is the sixth most by any NCAA Division I player.

Mead has scored 308 total points on the season which is the 10th most by a WKU freshman all-time. She is one assist from 100 on the season. She would become the seventh WKU freshman to notch 100 assists in their debut season.

Mead’s 3.4 assists per game is the ninth most in the conference and her 99 total on the season is the seventh most in the league.

The Lady Toppers will face UAB on Wednesday at 1:30 in the second round of the C-USA Championship in Frisco, Texas. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.