The win improved the Lady Toppers to 23-2 on the year and 8-0 in the Sun Belt East Division, while the Ragin’ Cajuns fell to 4-16 and 1-6 in the league’s West Division.
After falling behind in the early points of game one, WKU fought back with a seven-point run to open up an 11-5 lead. Western never looked back as the lead reached double digits when a Towler kill made it 21-11. ULL was able to get as close as seven when a Lady Topper service error made it 27-20, but a kill by Wagner and two straight from Whitney McCory closed out the game as WKU picked up at 10-point win in the opener.
Louisiana-Lafayette opened game two on a 5-2 run, but Western was able to score six of the next seven points to grab an 8-6 lead on a Towler kill. Again, WKU never trailed from that point on, using another run of five unanswered to pull out to an 18-11 lead after a kill from Wagner. Trailing 19-12, the Ragin’ Cajuns took advantage of three straight Lady Topper errors to pull within seven (19-15), but WKU was able to pull back out to a six-point lead when a kill from Megan Argabright made it 23-17. ULL scored the next three to cut the lead to 23-20, and the teams traded points as the Cajuns again made it a three-point contest when a block by Erika Castro made it 25-22. Kills by Wagner and Caron Blotch pulled the Lady Topper lead back to five, and sparked a 5-1 run as Western closed out game two with a 30-23 victory.
Western scored nine of the first 12 points out of the gate in game three — including a stretch of five straight — to jump out to an early 9-3 lead on a Kelly Hofmeyer service ace. That would prove to be the cushion the Lady Toppers needed, as they were able to continue to build the lead and pull out to a 17-8 on an ace by Abby Borror. ULL was able to score six of the next seven points to pull within four when a kill from Elina Salomaki made it 18-14, then got as close as two when another Salomaki spike made it 20-18. The teams traded points, but Western was able to hold off the Cajuns and stretched the lead out to 29-25 on a ULL attack error. The Ragin’ Cajuns stayed alive with the next point, but then put a ball in the net to give Western a 30-26 win and a sweep of the match.
Wagner led the Lady Toppers with a match-high 19 kills, and in the process went over 1,500 kills for her career. Towler added 11 kills and hit a match-high .600. Defensively, the trio of Blotch, Towler and Hofmeyer recorded eight digs each, while Blotch added 43 assists. Salomaki paced the Ragin’ Cajuns with 11 kills.
The Lady Toppers return home Tuesday (Oct. 25), hosting Belmont at 7 p.m. (CDT) at E.A. Diddle Arena.
