The Western Kentucky and Rice volleyball teams have been on a collision course for the entire season.

On Thursday, the two will finally meet – and the Conference USA regular-season championship will be on the line.

The No. 21 Owls come to Bowling Green to face the No. 22 Hilltoppers in a 6 p.m. match at E.A. Diddle Arena.

“It’s big. It’s big every time we play them, but it’s big every time we play them because we’re both doing this at such a high level. They’re really, really good. They’re having a phenomenal year,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “But I think we’ve said that about each other for the last five, six years now. It seems like both of us are in a stretch where we’ve played at a really high level and it always makes this fun.”

Both teams enter with two losses – all four have come against Power Five programs – and unbeaten marks in league play.

The Hilltoppers lost in three sets to a Louisville team that’s been in the top five nationally throughout the season in its first home match and also fell to Texas A&M. WKU has rolled through C-USA play with a 13-0 record with only two sets lost. It is No. 28 nationally in RPI.

Rice’s two losses came against Oregon on the road in five sets and to Baylor in three sets – the two are now ranked No. 14 and No. 10 in the country, respectively. The Owls are 12-0 in C-USA play, and will close the regular season Saturday at Middle Tennessee after facing the Hilltoppers. Rice’s RPI is No. 17 in the country.

“When I see Genny (Volpe), Rice’s coach, I talk to her a lot about let’s get to the point where these don’t hurt either of us, and that’s where I think we are,” Hudson said. “There’s certainly a regular-season conference championship on the line, but I think we’ve both put ourselves in position to be in the NCAA Tournament, which you hope to be able to do so kids can go out and relax and play at a high level.”

WKU has dominated C-USA since joining the league in 2014. It has a 140-7 record in league play during that stretch, with seven regular-season and seven tournament titles in eight seasons.

Its biggest challenger in the league during that time has been Rice.

The two have met in the C-USA Tournament championship match five times, including the last three times it was played. WKU has come out on top in each, and holds a 9-3 all-time record in the series with four straight wins. In the 11 meetings since the two have been conference foes, only one was decided in three sets.

“It’s going to be close, it’s going to be good, it’s going to be down to the wire,” Hudson said. “We’ve been really fortunate to win a lot of close ones with them. It begs the question of does it balance back out there in their direction or do we have some little secret sauce that’s getting us over the hump? I’m not sure what the answer is to that. It’s just a great rivalry between two really, really good programs.”

Thursday’s match has the makings of another competitive showing.

WKU and Rice are the top offensive and defensive teams in the league – the Hilltoppers hit .322 and the Owls .278, while Rice allows opponents to hit .160 and WKU allows opponents to hit .165.

Rice’s Anota Adekunle has a league-leading .437 hitting percentage, while WKU”s Lauren Matthews isn’t far behind at .402 – good for third. Matthews and teammate Paige Briggs are second and third in C-USA in kills at 4.03 and 3.84 per set. WKU setter Callie Bauer leads C-USA with 11.03 assists per set, while Rice setter Carly Graham is second at 10.10 per set.

While both have been solid defensively, they’ve done it different ways.

WKU has been big at the net and at the service line – WKU’s 2.54 blocks per set lead the league, Katie Isenbarger is second individually with 1.18 per set and the Hilltoppers’ 1.96 aces per set are second in C-USA. Katie Howard is second in the league with 0.51 aces per set.

Rice’s floor defense is strong – the Owls average a league-best 16.72 digs per set behind a league-leading 4.92 digs per set from Nia McCardell.

“I don’t think it’s going to be about who schemes better or who has a better scouting report or who has the better team – I don’t believe it’s any of those things,” Hudson said. “I think it’s going to be whoever plays better that night and that’s going to be fun.”

The match will be an appetizer of sorts for the C-USA Tournament, which will also be held at E.A. Diddle Arena. The eight-team tournament is scheduled to be played Nov. 18-20.

“It’s going to be exciting. I can’t tell you if we’re going to win. I can’t tell you if we’re going to lose. I can tell you it’s going to be good volleyball, and I can tell you it’s going to be an exciting match when we play them,” Hudson said. “I feel like this community has turned into a volleyball community over the last few years, and it’s time for them to show up again and make it that over the next couple of weeks.”{&end}