MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Western Kentucky University volleyball team rallied from two sets down to defeat Middle Tennessee 3-2 (22-25, 19-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-12) and clinch the Sun Belt Conference regular season volleyball championship Friday night at Alumni Memorial Gym.
"This is a team that all year long that has taken on every challenge," WKU coach Travis Hudson said. "We haven't wavered all year when we've been in tough situations. It's so rewarding for these kids because they've played so well all year long."
The Lady Toppers (28-3, 15-1 SBC) captured the ninth Sun Belt Eastern Division title in program history and the first since 2006. The match marked the second time this season WKU has gotten behind 2-0 and rallied to win the match.
"This has been just a magical year for our team in general and I'm just really, really proud of what these kids have come in and done every single day," Hudson said. "It doesn't just show up on game day but were where we are not just because of what we do on game day. They are a good group of kids, they stick together, they care about this program and they go out and compete every day."
Friday's win over the Blue Raiders (18-10, 14-2) was the first for WKU in the last eight meetings between the two teams and the first over MTSU in Murfreesboro since 2006. The Lady Toppers won their last 11 conference matches and finish the regular season 7-0 on the road in league play.
The Lady Toppers will be the No. 1 seed is next week's Sun Belt Conference Volleyball Tournament hosted by FIU. The tournament runs Thursday through Saturday at U.S. Century Bank Arena in Miami, Fla.
"We're regular season champs, we're 28-3, we're excited about where we are," Hudson said. "We've just got to continue with this momentum and go down there and get greedy and try to get another championship."
WKU tallied a season-best 72 kills as a team with a .297 hitting percentage while Middle Tennessee was limited to 57 kills with a .277 hitting mark. WKU totaled 39 digs and eight team blocks.
Four different Lady Toppers finished the match with double-digit kills led by junior Jordyn Skinner with 20 kills. Senior Lindsay Williams had 15 kills and a .379 hitting mark. Sophomore Janee' Diggins tallied 13 kills and senior Tiffany Elmore added 11 kills.
"That's just who (Jordyn) is," Hudson said. "You just love watching her play and she had five blocks, she had two aces, a big ace in that fifth game and another double-double. She's just a special talent and it's a pleasure to coach her and watch the things that she can do on the floor."
Sophomore setter Melanie Stutsman recorded a career-high 57 assists with five kills, three digs and a pair of blocks.
Defensively, Skinner tallied her 18th double-double of the season after leading the team with 13 digs. Sophomore libero Ashley Potts recorded 11 digs, her 26th double-digit match of the year. Junior Sarah Rogers added seven digs and freshman Mollie Pajakowski had four digs.
In the deciding fifth set, WKU took an early 9-4 lead and Middle Tennessee rallied to close the gap to 11-9. The Lady Toppers pulled in front again at 13-9 before the Blue Raiders tallied three straight points to cut the lead to 13-12. WKU tallied the final two points of the set to complete the comeback.
After getting down 2-0, the Lady Toppers rallied to take sets three and four. With the score at 13-12 in the third set, WKU tallied seven of the next nine points, including four kills by Diggins, to build a 20-14 lead. The Lady Toppers closed out the 25-16 win on a kill by Skinner to cap off a 5-1 run.
"In game three we decided that we were going to compete," Hudson said. "We had a pretty interesting meeting between games two and three and we just talked about competing and in game three we started competing and it certainly changed the whole complexion of the match."
WKU pulled the match even with a 25-20 win in the fourth set. With the score knotted at 16-16, WKU scored seven of the next eight points to pull in front 23-17 before ending the set on a kill by Williams.
The two teams traded points back and forth in the beginning of the first set, seeing 13 ties early on. MTSU took its first lead at 16-15 and did not trail again. Then with the score 19-17 in the second set, the Blue Raiders took the 2-0 lead behind an 8-2 run.
