DALLAS –Conference USA announced its volleyball all-conference and superlative awards Thursday ahead of the 2021 C-USA Volleyball Championship. No. 18 WKU earned three Superlative Awards, while FIU, Middle Tennessee and Rice each had one individual award in a vote of the league’s 14 head coaches. WKU’s Lauren Matthews was crowned both the C-USA Alyssa Cavanaugh Player of the Year for the second time in her career and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
 
A total of 11 Conference USA programs collected at least one all-conference selection with six earning at least two or more. WKU led all C-USA programs with five selections, while Rice was second with four honors.
 
Matthews, a senior middle hitter, won the Player of the Year Award for the second time in three seasons (2019). She led C-USA in conference matches in hitting percentage (.522), was fourth in kills per set (4.72), and was second in points per set (5.63). She owned the top three attack percentages in a single conference match, including a conference-best .929 mark at FIU on October 1. Defensively, Matthews led the conference in blocks per set (1.41), and tied for the most blocks in a single C-USA match with 10 vs. Middle Tennessee on October 16. She was a four-time C-USA Offensive Player of the Week honoree and was also the league’s Defensive Player of the Week on October 18.
 
C-USA renamed its’ Player of the Year Award over the summer in honor of late WKU star Alyssa Cavanaugh, a four-time All-American outside hitter for the Hilltoppers who passed away in December 2020 after a battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Cavanaugh was a two-time C-USA Player of the Year, a four-time AVCA All-American and the conference’s 2017-18 Michael L. Slive Female Athlete of the Year during her career at WKU (2014-17).
 
Rice junior Carly Graham captured C-USA Setter of the Year for the second consecutive season as she also captured the 2020-21 award in the spring. Graham led C-USA in assists per set in conference games with 11.68. She was also sixth in service aces with an average of 0.41 per set, and averaged 2.93 digs per set in conference matches. Graham posted a 55-assist effort over four sets against Southern Miss on October 23. She was a four-time C-USA Setter of the Week selection for the C-USA West Division champion Owls.
 
Middle Tennessee redshirt sophomore defensive specialist Marley Banton was tabbed as the C-USA Libero of the Year. She was second in digs in C-USA matches with 5.02 per set, and she posted a conference-match-best 39 digs vs. Florida Atlantic on October 29. Banton posted 20 or more digs in six conference matches, and she also had a pair of C-USA matches with four service aces.
 
FIU outside hitter Giada Bianchi was voted as the league’s Freshman of the Year after a season in which she averaged 3.70 kills per set (10th in C-USA), 3.10 digs per set, 0.60 service aces per set (second in the conference), 0.70 blocks per set and 4.69 points per set (ninth in C-USA) in conference matches for the Panthers. Bianchi was a two-time C-USA Freshman of the Week selection.
 
WKU’s Travis Hudson was selected as the Conference USA Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career (2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021). The No. 18-ranked Hilltoppers have a 24-1 overall record and posted a 12-0 conference record as WKU captured the C-USA East Division title. Hudson coached five All-Conference players, including Matthews’ double individual honor as Player and Defensive Player of the Year, and one All-Freshman player during the 2021 season. WKU has a current 17-match overall winning streak in which the Hilltoppers have dropped just three sets.

Matthews, Graham and Bianchi were part of the First Team All-Conference USA squad. Joining them was Sydney Rowan (Charlotte), Ciara DeBell (Marshall), Rhett Robinson (North Texas), Anota Adekunle and Nicole Lennon (Rice), Fernanda Maida (UAB), Serena Patterson (UTEP) along with Paige Briggs and Nadia Dieudonne (WKU). Banton was selected to C-USA second-team honors.
 
The coaches also selected a Second Team and an All-Freshman squad.
 
The 2021 C-USA Volleyball Championship commences with four quarterfinal matches Friday, November 19 at the ODU Volleyball Center on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Charlotte, FIU, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UTEP and WKU will battle it out in the eight-team championship. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, November 20, and the C-USA championship match will be played Sunday, November 21 at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT. All matches of the championship will be streamed on ESPN+.
 
Player of the Year
Lauren Matthews, WKU
 
Setter of the Year
Carly Graham, Rice
 
Defensive Player of the Year
Lauren Matthews, WKU
 
Libero of the Year
Marley Banton, Middle Tennessee
 
Freshman of the Year
Giada Bianchi, FIU
 
Coach of the Year
Travis Hudson, WKU
 
All-Conference USA First Team
Sydney Rowan, Charlotte
Giada Bianchi, FIU
Ciara DeBell, Marshall
Rhett Robinson, North Texas
Anota Adekunle, Rice
Carly Graham, Rice
Nicole Lennon, Rice
Fernanda Maida, UAB
Serena Patterson, UTEP
Paige Briggs, WKU
Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
Lauren Matthews, WKU
 
All-Conference USA Second Team
Emani’ Foster, Charlotte
Amani McArther, Charlotte
McKenzie Johnson, Louisiana Tech
Marley Banton, Middle Tennessee
Samira Lawson Body, Middle Tennessee
Sarah Haeussler, North Texas
Alessia Sgherza, Old Dominion
Ellie Bichelmeyer, Rice
Mia Wesley, Southern Miss
Alex Kells, UAB
Alianza Darley, UTEP
Katie Isenbarger, WKU
Kayland Jackson, WKU
 
C-USA All-Freshman Team
Giada Bianchi, FIU
Katelyn Robine, Florida Atlantic
McKenzie Johnson, Louisiana Tech
Andrea Owens, North Texas
Myah Conway, Old Dominion
Shaylee Shore, Rice
Ema Uskokovic, UTEP
Katie Howard, WKU