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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Led by 19 Alyssa Cavanaugh kills, No. 25 WKU Volleyball survived a five-set battle against visiting Lipscomb in its final non-conference match of the 2016 season. For just the third time this season, it took all five sets to decide an outcome with Tuesday evening's victory marking the second five-set win on the campaign for the Lady Toppers.
With the victory, the Red and White climb to an impressive 18-2 overall record and closed non-conference play with a 13-2 reading on the year. Lipscomb fell to 10-7 on 2016 and 7-5 in non-league action.
"All I can say about our team is that they never quit because we got our butts handed to us for a lot of the night," head coach Travis Hudson stated. "But we did persevere, continued to grind and luckily found a way to win."
For just the third time this season an opponent claimed the opening frame over the Lady Toppers as Lipscomb won the opener 25-15. The sides were even at 6-6 before the Bisons surged to a six-point advantage and never allowed WKU back into the set. WKU was limited to a .071 hitting percentage in the set and was led by four Sydney Engle kills on seven swings.
"It wasn't a surprise for me," Hudson said of the first-set loss. "What you saw happen in that first set, I described that to them before they even took the floor. I knew what Lipscomb would be like tonight coming off that loss. They were exactly that - aggressive with everything they did and rocked us on our heels. It took a while for us to steady ourselves."
WKU responded to the rare first-set loss with a 25-23 second-set victory as the team recorded a season-high 21 kills in the set. After going down 3-4, the Lady Toppers would not trail again in the frame. WKU owned multiple four-point leads in the set including a 20-16 advantage before Lipscomb would work its way back to knot the contest at 22-22. Kills by Amara Listenbee and Rachel Anderson would set up the set point for Kaelin Grimes who served an ace to secure set and even the match at 1-1. The Lady Toppers hit .514 in the set including eight kills by Cavanaugh and seven by Anderson.
Coming out of the long break, Lipscomb and WKU returned to battle as extra points would be needed to determine a winner. The host Lady Toppers eventually won the set in a 28-26 fashion after fending off five set points that favored the Bisons. WKU was busy at the net as the squad recorded seven blocks in the frame led by Listenbee's three. Lipscomb was limited to a .098 hitting clip in the frame with 16 kills against 12 errors.
Lipscomb retaliated in set four, claiming a demanding 25-16 margin of victory over WKU. The Lady Toppers were held to a .074 hitting rate and seven kills. A .464 hitting clip in the set by Lipscomb including 16 kills sent the match into a decisive fifth frame.
Set five was filled with runs by both sides. After WKU opened up a quick 4-3 lead, Lipscomb responded with a four-point run to force a WKU stoppage down 4-7. Out of the timeout, Anderson put away a kill to open a four-point run in favor of the Lady Toppers for an eventual 8-7 advantage. Lipscomb countered with three-consecutive points to take a slim 10-8 lead. The Bisons owned a 13-11 lead before a Cavanaugh kill followed by an Anderson-Lucas assist block knotted the contest at 13-13 and forced a Lipscomb timeout. Out of the stop, the teams traded points before back-to-back blocks by Cavanaugh and then Lucas with Anderson sealed the victory.
In the fifth set alone, WKU registered five team blocks with a trio of tallies for Anderson. Overall, the Lady Toppers recorded 15 blocks on the contest to tie their second-largest outing on the season and out-block the Bisons 15 to nine. Anderson led WKU individually, producing a six-block effort followed by five blocks by Taylor Dellinger. Listenbee finished with four, including a trio of solo stops while Cavanaugh also put up three of her own.
Cavanaugh led the WKU offense with a 19-kill effort off of 41 attacks for a .317 hitting rate. This marks the 13th time on Cavanaugh's junior campaign that the two-time All-American has registered at least 15 kills in a match.
"We spun our dial lineup wise with Alyssa [Cavanaugh] starting at the left front," Hudson shared. "We've ridden that kid a lot this year and she made some spectacular plays in the last set."
In addition to her six block assists, Anderson contributed 15 kills in the match to finish with a .270 hitting percentage. Anderson has produced 15 or more kills in seven outings this season including back-to-back matches now.
Dellinger also finished with double-digit kills, producing 11 on the evening for the sixth double-digit kill outing of her sophomore campaign. Additionally, five blocks including two solo stops, is a new career high for the Michigan native.
Engle finished with a pair of service aces on the night to go along with a full stat line that included a team-high 15 digs, seven kills, five assists and a trio of block assists. Also working to double-digit digs was senior libero Georgia O'Connell who finished with 12 in the match, to put her career total at 1,497.
Facilitating the offense was Jessica Lucas who contributed 49 assists in the match to accompany seven digs, a pair of block assists and a kill.
The final Tuesday-night matchup of 2016 for WKU proved to be a good one as the contest saw 41 tie scores in addition to 20 lead changes throughout the five sets from the E.A. Diddle Arena.
"I'm not sure; It's not coaching, I can promise you that," Hudson commented on how the team continues to win. "It's just guts and I said it before the match in our chalk talk. I still feel like this team, and nobody wants hear it but we are 18-2, Top 25, 19 RPI, is not playing great volleyball. We are not hitting on all cylinders, but every night we just seem to find enough. That says a lot about our kids and their perseverance. I've got to do a better job with our kids in the gym on practice. We are not making the progress that I want to make on a consistent basis. We are not winning because of what I've done this year but what we've done for the last 20 years in this program."
WKU will host a pair of Conference USA opponents this weekend. UAB will visit Bowling Green Friday night as the Lady Topper volleyball team kicks off Hilltopper Hysteria night with a 6 p.m. contest against the Blazers. On Sunday, WKU will close weekend action with a noon CT match against FIU.
