BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The Western Kentucky University volleyball team opened the 2011 season with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-21) win over Sacramento State on Friday afternoon at Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tenn.
WKU (1-0) improves to 11-6 in season openers under 17th-year head coach Travis Hudson.
"It was a pretty ugly effort overall as you would expect this early in the season," Hudson said. "But we did enough things well to really be in control of the match throughout."
Senior Tiffany Elmore led the WKU offense with 17 kills and a .607 hitting percentage. Sophomore Janee' Diggins tallied nine kills and Jordyn Skinner finished with seven kills. Redshirt sophomore Paige Wessel and senior Lindsay Williams each added six kills.
"I don't know how you can be any more proud of a kid that eight and a half months ago had an ACL injury and has done nothing everyday but work to get back to this point," Hudson said. "(Elmore) was a great player before this happen and I think she is sending notice that she is going to be pretty doggone good one afterwards as well."
Skinner and sophomore Ashley Potts combined for 43 of the Lady Toppers 74 team digs. Skinner tallied 22 digs while Potts recorded 21, a career-high number for both. Junior Sarah Rogers added 10 digs.
"This was Ashley's first match in the libero position in her career and she really responded with seven digs a game," Hudson said. "Jordyn showed why I think she is the best player in our league because she is a left side hitter and she had a very average match offensively but boy she can really affect us in a lot of ways and today she was terrific defensively."
Sophomore Melanie Stutsman picked up where she left of last season, providing 36 assists, five kills, six digs and a pair of service aces.
The Lady Toppers jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first set behind early kills from Elmore and Diggins. With the score 12-7, WKU went on a 4-0 run to push the lead to 16-7. The Lady Toppers built their largest lead at 20-11 before closing out the set on a 5-2 run.
With an 11-10 lead in the second set, WKU scored three straight points to take a four-point lead. Sacramento State kept the match close however, pulling within two points of the Lady Toppers several times. WKU scored three of the last four points to take the 25-21 victory.
The two teams traded points back and forth at the beginning of the third set, with five ties early. With the score 8-8, WKU tallied six straight points fueled by two kills each from Elmore and Diggins. The Lady Toppers built a 17-10 lead before the Hornets rallied to close the gap to 19-18. WKU closed out the win behind Elmore, who scored three of the final four points.
The Lady Toppers return to action Saturday for the second day of the Belmont Invitational. WKU will face host Belmont in the first match of the day at 12:30 p.m., and conclude the tournament against Murray State at 3:30 p.m.
"I think the real challenge tomorrow is that Belmont and Murray State are both going to be very different opponents than the one we faced today," Hudson said. "Tomorrow, we are playing two teams that are smaller, but very good defensively, very quick, very athletic with very fast offenses and those will certainly present challenges for us."
For complete results and a recap of Saturday's action, please visit WKUSports.com. Live stats will also be available on the site.
