LEXINGTON – Western Kentucky’s first-round NCAA Tournament match Friday with Notre Dame will be a clash of strengths.

The Lady Toppers (30-3) are one of the top offensive teams across Division I, while the Fighting Irish (22-9) rank among the nation’s defensive leaders.

WKU coach Travis Hudson said that contrast will be “the story of the match” Friday at Memorial Coliseum. First serve is set for 4 p.m. CST, with the match streamed on ESPN3.

The winner will face either East Tennessee State or No. 4 national seed Kentucky on Saturday night in the second round.

“I don’t think this will be a match where we put up WKU-like numbers offensively,” Hudson told the Daily News on Thursday after practice on Kentucky’s campus. “But I think if we can approach those numbers it’ll be enough to get through.”

The Lady Toppers have been among the nation’s most potent offenses this season thanks to an arsenal of strong hitters, who are all set up by senior setter Jessica Lucas.

Conference USA Player of the Year Alyssa Cavanaugh, an outside hitter, averages four kills per set and hits at a .358 attacking percentage.

Middle hitter Rachel Anderson (3.59 kills per set, .425 percentage) and outside hitters Sydney Engle (1.96, .333) and Taylor Dellinger (1.86, .220) give WKU a variety of weapons near the net.

Lucas tees those hitters up for big swings, averaging 10.99 assists per set. She’s posted 1,231 assists this season, and her 5,246 career assists rank No. 2 all-time in Lady Topper history, behind only Melanie Stutsman’s 5,294.

Collectively, WKU boasts the No. 2 offense in all of D-I with a .335 hitting clip on the year. That attack helped the Lady Toppers build a 23-match win streak from Sept. 2 to Nov. 9, post the seventh-best winning percentage in D-I (.909) and become one of just four D-I programs with 30 victories.

“They run their program, they’re well-coached and the kids know how to play volleyball,” Notre Dame coach Jim McLaughlin said. “They’ll be a handful.”

The Fighting Irish meanwhile rank No. 12 nationally in digs. Key Notre Dame players include outside hitter Jemma Yeadon (3.91 kills per set), middle hitter Sam Fry (1.36 blocks per set) and defender Ryann DeJarld (6.14 digs per set).

“I did some homework on it yesterday and Notre Dame’s only allowed six teams all year to hit above .200 in a match and we’ve hit above .300 20 times this year,” Hudson said. “So something’s going to give in this match.”

Friday’s match in Lexington will mark the first of WKU’s 11th trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Toppers are 2-10 all-time in NCAA play, having been swept last season by Boise State in the first round.

“I think years past, I think we’ve just been very excited to get here,” said Lucas, the C-USA Setter of the Year. “This is a veteran group and we’re ready to go prove ourselves from last year.

“We have that bad taste from last year. We didn’t think we finished like we should have. We’re ready to go play.”

The Lady Toppers get the advantage this season of playing a tourney match in Kentucky for the first time since 2005.

WKU offered buses for students and other fans to come to Lexington on Friday for the match. The Lady Toppers should have a good number of friendly faces in Memorial Coliseum, especially compared to the last two seasons when the team was sent to Provo, Utah, and then Stanford, Calif., for the NCAA Tournament.

The match will also be a homecoming for Lexington natives Mary Martin, Darby Music and Hallie Shelton.

“I think everybody is just ready to go play,” Lucas said. “This is what we’ve worked for since last January and we’re ready to lay it out on the line.”

This NCAA Tournament will be the last run for the only group of WKU seniors to ever advance to the NCAAs in four straight years.

That group is highlighted by Cavanaugh and Lucas, both of whom have been honored as All-Americans during their career, and Engle, the team’s most versatile player.

Hudson’s advice to those seniors playing their final tournament? “Embrace the opportunity.”

“This late, you don’t want them to worry about the end of it,” Hudson said. “You want them to just go out with a bang.

“They’re kids that have meant so much to our program and they don’t owe this program another thing. We just want to hang around for awhile and let them continue to play with that ‘WKU’ on, because their legacy that they leave behind is a great one.”{&end}