"This was a great end to our regular season with win number 20," head coach Travis Hudson opened. "With all that our kids have faced, to get to 20 wins is a terrific accomplishment. I am so proud of how they have hung together."
WKU Volleyball secured its 19th-consecutive 20-win season with the win over the Lady Techsters and now sits at 20-9 on the year. The Lady Toppers closed Conference USA action with an 11-3 record and owned the tiebreaker in the right spots to secure the No. 2 seed for the second-straight campaign.
Louisiana Tech jumped on top early in the opening set on Saturday afternoon, grabbing a quick 7-3 advantage. WKU responded with an immediate 3-0 run to open a 12-4 stretch in favor of the Red and White for a 15-11 lead. Tech answered right back and knotted things at 15-15 and 16-16 before WKU began to pull away. The hosts worked back and tied the frame for the final time at 21-21 before WKU finished with a 4-1 run with all four tallies off kills. After a slow start, the WKU offense finished with 16 kills for a .222 hitting clip in the 25-22 win.
Tied at 8-8 to open set two, WKU strung together a 3-0 run for an 11-8 advantage it would not relinquish. The Lady Techsters pulled within two at 19-17 but WKU capitalized on three-straight Louisiana Tech errors to push its advantage to five at 22-17. Three more kills by the Red and White gave the visitors the 25-19 second-set victory as the Lady Toppers operated at a .433 offensive clip in the frame.
WKU wasted no time out of the intermission and jolted to a 9-0 advantage before the Lady Techsters were able to tally a point. From there, the Red and White pushed ahead to a 17-5 lead. Louisiana Tech cut its deficit into single digits at 18-10 before WKU would make another three-point surge capped by a Payton Frederick ace. Tech followed with its own three-point swing but WKU scored four of the final six points for the 25-15 victory.
Rachel Anderson joined Matthews with double-digit kills, turning in 10 on the day for her eighth-straight match in double figures. Anderson notched four blocks in the win.
Sophia Cerino contributed nine kills, a .412 hitting percentage, three aces, three digs and three blocks. Kayland Jackson finished with eight kills, a dig and a solo block on the day.
Frederick led the Red and White with nine digs while Darby Music and Mary Martin each added six. Martin drew the start at setter for the WKU squad and led the team to a .318 hitting clip and .489 kill percentage. The senior finished with 36 assists in the sweep.
The Lady Toppers closed the match with 43 digs to Louisiana Tech's 29 while limiting the hosts to a .151 offensive rate. WKU owned a 6-2 advantage in the ace column in addition to a 38-27 lead in the dig department.
NEXT UP:
Next up for the Lady Topper squad is the Conference USA Tournament in Huntington, W.Va., from Nov. 16-18. The complete C-USA Tournament bracket will be announced Sunday.
TOPPER NOTES:
- Run of the match: A 9-0 run by the Lady Toppers to open the final set. Owning a 2-0 lead already in the match, WKU came out hot following intermission and led from start to finish en route to its seventh sweep of the season.
- With the victory, WKU now leads LA Tech 13-7 in the all-time series. The Lady Toppers have won all eight of their last meetings with the Lady Techsters.
- Lauren Matthews led the way with her second-straight 14-kill match. The freshman was errorless on 20 swings, finding the floor for 15 kills for a career-best .750 efficiency.
- Drawing the start, reigning C-USA Setter of the Week Mary Martin dished out 36 assists in just three sets of action. Martin also added six digs.
- Sophia Cerino finished with nine kills on a .412 attack rate with three aces, three blocks and three digs as well.
- WKU Volleyball secured its 19th-straight 20-win season under Travis Hudson. The last time the Lady Topper program did not reach the 20-win plateau was the 1999 campaign when the squad went 18-14. Travis Hudson now has 20 20-win seasons to his name while at the helm of the program.
How to Follow the Lady Toppers: For complete information on WKU Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUVolleyball and head coach Travis Hudson at @TravisHudsonWKU.
