The victory also polished off the best regular season in Lady Topper history as WKU improved to 28-2, and finished with a 12-0 mark in the Sun Belt. Troy dropped to 10-14 overall and 3-10 in the league.
Troy jumped out to score three of the first four points of game one, but the Lady Toppers battled back to tie things up at 5-5 on a Trojan ball handling error. Kelly Hofmeyer then served five straight points as Western opened up a 10-5 lead after a block from Megan Argabright and Alli Christian. Troy came back with two straight points to pull within three, but Western was able to stretch the advantage out to 17-9 on a Jenna Gideon kill. After Troy scored the next point on a Meghan Washlow kill, The Lady Toppers scored the next nine to open up a 26-10 lead. The Trojans scored four straight to cut their deficit to 12, but Western was able to take advantage of three errors down the stretch to close out game one 30-16.
Again, it was the Trojans that took an early lead in game two, but just as in the opener Western scored six unanswered to take an 11-5 lead on a Jessie Wagner kill. The Lady Toppers took control of the game from that point, pulling out to a double-figure lead when a Crystal Towler kill made it 18-8. The lead grew to 13 when an Argabright kill made it 24-11. After trading points, Gideon and Towler recorded a block to give WKU another 30-16 win a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Lady Toppers never trailed in game three, scoring the first three points and five of the first seven. Troy pulled within two when a kill by Aubre Smith made it 7-5, but Western scored eight of the next 10 points to grab a 15-7 lead on a Trojan attack error. The Western lead remained between six and eight points for most of the game until the Lady Toppers scored three straight to take a 26-15 lead on a block from Wagner and Argabright. WKU was able to trade points down the stretch, and got back-to-back kills by Argabright to close out the match with a 30-17 win in the final game.
Western’s middle hitters led the way offensively as Argabright and Gideon posted 14 and 13 kills, respectively. As a team, the Lady Toppers hit .413 for the match — the 12th time in 30 regular-season matches that WKU hit better than .400 as a team. Defensively, Western recorded nine total blocks, and Ashley Deignan led the way with a match-high 15 digs.
The Lady Toppers now turn their attention to the 2005 Aeropostale Sun Belt Conference Tournament, which gets underway Thursday (Nov. 17) in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
