BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Western Kentucky University volleyball team continued its strong Sun Belt Conference play with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-19) win over Florida Atlantic on Friday night at FAU Arena.
WKU (18-5, 7-1) finished the match with a team hitting percentage of .362, its fourth-highest percentage of the season. The Lady Toppers have won 10 of their last 11 matches without dropping a set in the victories.
"We came out and played extremely well early on in the match," WKU coach Travis Hudson said. "But as the match wore on I thought it got a little bit sloppy and we played from behind a lot in that third game but found a way to win.
"We were really able to attack Florida Atlantic up the middle. Our middle hitters had a big match for us and we built off of that."
The Lady Toppers remained unbeaten in 11 all-time meetings against Florida Atlantic (10-12, 1-5), which was limited to a .163 hitting percentage while committing 16 attack errors. WKU has held 10 of its last 11 opponents under a .200 hitting percentage.
Junior Tiffany Elmore led the WKU offensive attack with 13 kills and a .600 hitting percentage. Classmate Lindsay Williams added 11 kills and four block assists. Sophomore Jordyn Skinner finished the night with eight kills and a .348 hitting percentage while Emily Teegarden and Paige Wessel each recorded five kills.
Freshman setter Melanie Stutsman posted six kills, a .462 hitting percentage, 35 assists and five digs on the night.
Defensively, Skinner led the team with 11 digs, and freshman Ashley Potts tallied nine digs. Sophomore libero Sarah Rogers and senior Kelly Potts each posted seven digs.
With the score tied 2-2 in the first set, WKU scored eight of the next 12 points to take a 10-6 lead. The Lady Toppers used an 8-1 run at 14-9 to increase its advantage to 22-10. WKU closed out the 25-14 win on a kill by Elmore.
In the second set, the Lady Toppers got down 4-3 early before using a 6-0 run to take a 9-4 lead. WKU would stay in front the remainder of the set, slowing adding to their lead and holding their largest advantage at 19-12. Back-to-back kills by Elmore and Stutsman sealed the victory for WKU.
The third set was a close battle between both teams, seeing nine ties and six lead changes. The Lady Toppers played from behind the majority of the set, needing a 4-0 run down 16-12 to tie the set. The score was tied twice more before WKU scored seven of the final eight points to take the set and the match.
WKU returns to action Saturday against FIU at 5:30 p.m. at U.S. Century Bank Pavilion in Miami, Fla.
"That is going to be a big match," Hudson said. "FIU is the defending conference champion and we were able to beat them in our place but we know tomorrow they will be ready to play."
For complete results and a recap of Saturday's action, please visit WKUSports.com. Live stats will also be available on the site.
WKU-FAU Box
