Western won the first two games (30-25, 30-22), dropped the third (30-28), and took the fourth (30-24) to ensure the four-game victory at the UALR Trojan Field House on senior day. The win improved the Lady Toppers to 22-9 overall. With the loss, Arkansas-Little Rock fell to 12-12 overall and 6-7 in the league.
The Lady Toppers took the lead early in game one, 4-3, on a kill by Lyndsey Broerman, and they never looked back. Western led throughout and stretched their advantge to eight points, 25-17, on a service ace by Amanda Schiff. The Trojans called a timeout and then fought back to cut the lead to four, 29-25, before Crystal Towler fired the game-winning kill, on an assist by Caron Blotch.
Western gave up the first point of game two on a kill by UALR's Sarah Breedlove. WKU then went on a 5-0 run that was countered by a 4-0 spurt by the Trojans to tie the game at five points each. The Lady Toppers scored the next four points and never trailed again. They pulled out to thier biggest lead, 29-20, on a service ace by Amanda Cecil but gave up the next two points to Arkansas-Little Rock. Western got the win on a kill by Schiff, assisted by Blotch, taking the game 30-22.
UALR took a quick 3-1 advantage in game three. The Lady Toppers came back to tie the score at three and it looked as though they were going to get the win, and the sweep, as they kept control of the game until the Trojans tied it at 20 on a kill by Ivanka Davidova. The game went back and forth and remained tied until Arkansas-Little Rock took the 29-28 lead. They picked up the 30th point on a kill by Davidova and won game three, 30-28, to keep the match alive.
The Trojans took the first point of game four on a kill by Ivana Vracar. Western tied the game at one and then again at six points. They fended off the Trojans and pulled away by as many as five points, 16-11, before allowing UALR to knot the score at 16. The Lady Toppers scored the 17th point first, but Arkansas-Little Rock was quick to anwer with a score of their own. From there, the score was never as close as WKU held off the Trojans and went on to win the game 30-24 on Schiff's kill.
In the match, Towler equaled a season-high with 18 kills, while teammate Ashly Miller recored 20 plus digs for the second straight match. Also in double-digits in the kills column was Jessie Wagner, with 15, and Schiff, with 11. Miller led the team with 21 digs while Cecil added 18 and Towler tallied 12. Blotch had 52 assists in the Lady Toppers' victory.
Western's next match is a home tilt with Middle Tennessee Friday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. (CST). The match with the Blue Raiders will be the Lady Toppers' final home game of the 2004 season.
