No. 23-Ranked Tops Win 20th-Straight Match, Sweep UTEP

Friday, November 1

Bowling Green, Ky.

6 p.m. CT

Western Kentucky University

-241; 100 CUSA

UTEP

-1012; 36 CUSA

UTEP

WKU

11/1/2019 8:33:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

INTERVIEWS: COACH HUDSON | SOPHIA CERINO | NADIA DIEUDONNE

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Volleyball added to its dominant 2019 season with the squad's NCAA-best 18^th sweep of the season Friday night over UTEP. With the win, the No. 23 Lady Toppers secured their 20^th-straight victory while pushing their sets-won streak out to 21 for the first time since 2017. WKU's high-powered offense operated at a .397 hitting clip while Paige Briggs and Lauren Matthews contributed double-digit kills.

"Obviously, we're on a pretty good winning streak right now, and so to me it's about staying sharp and being our best as the season winds down," head coach Travis Hudson shared. "I'm not sure that is where we are, but you know we did some good things. I thought our first contact was really good tonight. I thought we served it well and I thought we passed it well. I think that kept us kind of in control off the match."

With the victory, the Red and White are now 24-1 on the season and remain unbeaten in Conference USA action with a 10-0 record. WKU now leads the all-time series 9-0 over the Miners as UTEP falls to 10-12 overall and 3-6 in C-USA play.

WKU jumped out to an early lead in the opening frame and never looked back. The squad finished with 14 kills and a .407 hitting percentage along with three blocks. Opening up an 11-3 lead, WKU would keep that cushion until the end of the 25-13 first set victory. UTEP called its final timeout trailing 21-12 and scored the first point out of the break but it was all Tops after that with four-straight points.

Set two went back-and-forth until 14-14, when WKU would go on to score five-straight points to create separation. The Lady Toppers ultimately pulled away, using a 7-1 run to make the score 21-15. From there, the sides split the final eight points as WKU claimed the set 25-19 for a 2-0 lead in the match.

Out of the break, UTEP kept close early on, but a four-point run out to a 10-6 lead gave WKU a lead it would not relinquish. Soon after, an 8-2 run to give the Tops an eight-point lead at 19-11. WKU would go on to close out the sweep with a 25-17 set-three victory.

Briggs and Matthews finished with double-digit kills on the night as Briggs totaled 11 and Matthews posted 10. With a .533 hitting percentage, Matthews recorded her 11^th match of the season with a hitting mark above .500. Sophia Cerino added six more kills on a .444 clip.

Collectively, WKU tallied with a 35 total kills on 68 attempts for a .397 hitting percentage while holding UTEP to a .167 rate.

WKU would see five different Lady Toppers record aces as the team finished with eight on the night. Briggs, Katie Isenbarger and Hallie Shelton all notched two.

Nadia Dieudonne dished out 29 assists to go along with a team-high six digs in addition to three kills and an ace.

At the net, WKU out-blocked UTEP 7-5. Matthews tallied five total stuffs including all three of WKU's solo blocks.

HUDSON ON THE HOPE FOR HARLIE FUNDRAISER NIGHT TURNOUT:
"It is the best, I told you it was a great crowd, I hope one of the reasons it was a great crowd is because people wanted to come out and give to that little girl and celebrate HER because she's a really special part of our program, and hopefully she felt a lot of love around her tonight on her night. We'll certainly do it as long as we can keep tricking her to come into Diddle Arena."

NEXT TIME OUT:
With its lone match of the weekend wrapped up, WKU Volleyball turns its focus to its final road trip of the regular season. The Lady Toppers will head out for North Texas (Friday) and No. 18 Rice (Sunday) for one of the most anticipated road trips of the season.

"We have a bunch of competitors in our locker room," Hudson added. "It is hard to not look forward to those matches, but as a coach those are the two that are least concerning to me, and I know our teams as competitors will be ready to play for those, but they're two really difficult tests for us on the road, and we're going to have to play very well to get a win at either place. North Texas at North Texas is one of the hardest places to play in this league, and obviously Rice is having a pretty special year, so I think it is good for us. I don't think next weekend can go bad, if that makes sense to you. Obviously if we win, we'll feel good about it, but you know if we lose I think it's a really test going into the conference tournament time. We find out where we can be exposed a little bit, and have a couple weeks to still make it better, so even though it is a big weekend per se in terms of standings and all that, it is one that I am very much looking forward to."

How to Follow WKU Volleyball: For complete information on WKU Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUVolleyball and head coach Travis Hudson at @TravisHudsonWKU. The team is also on Instagram and Facebook.