All-Around Effort Leads No. 22 WKU Past North Texas, 3-1

Friday, November 8

Denton, Texas

6 p.m. CT

Western Kentucky University

-251,110 CUSA

North Texas

-159,93 CUSA

WKU

North Texas

11/8/2019 8:42:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Interview: Coach Hudson

DENTON, Texas – WKU Volleyball turned in a four-set win Friday night at North Texas to extend its winning streak to 21-straight matches. Paige Briggs delivered a 21-kill, 11-dig performance while Lauren Matthews racked up 19 kills and seven blocks as the No. 22-ranked Lady Toppers improved to 25-1 overall and 11-0 in Conference USA.

"I really saw some grit out of our team tonight," head coach Travis Hudson opened. "North Texas responded in the second set as we knew they would. Andrew is such a good coach; they're constantly making adjustments that we had to keep track of. Our kids continued to grind. In that fourth set, we separated ourselves by a lot of different kids making plays which was awesome to see."

With the victory, WKU spoiled North Texas' Senior Night. The Mean Green are now 15-9 overall and 9-3 in C-USA play.

In the opening frame, WKU was the first to double digits at 10-8 but UNT responded with three-straight points before a Nadia Dieudonne kill knotted the score at 11-11. From there, North Texas found the floor for a kill but a Lauren Matthews solo block would open up a 10-0 run for WKU. The Mean Green finally ended the streak to make the score 22-13, but WKU pushed ahead to the final 25-16 margin of victory. The Lady Toppers worked at a .364 hitting clip in the frame while racking up 14 digs defensively and holding North Texas to a .097 attack rate.

North Texas evened the match with a 25-23 set-two win. WKU held just one lead in the frame, coming at 3-2. The frame saw seven ties with the final knot coming at 22-22 with Lauren Matthews' ninth kill of the night. WKU operated at a .412 hitting percentage in the frame.

With North Texas' second-set win, WKU's 22-straight sets won streak came to a close.

Following the break, WKU struck for the first point of the third frame and never looked back. Sophia Cerino added her second ace of the match and the Tops would push out to a 13-1 lead before North Texas would score again. WKU cruised out to a 17-3 advantage before ultimately claiming the set 25-11.

The Mean Green scored the opening point of the fourth frame and would push all the way out to a 9-5 lead. From there, WKU responded with a 5-0 run to take a lead it would not relinquish en route to a 25-19 set four win. The Lady Toppers worked at a .286 offensive clip in the final frame.

As a team, WKU worked at a .394 hitting clip on the match, racking up 60 kills against just 10 error on the night. Briggs tallied 21 of those kills while hitting .476 to go along with 11 digs for her 12^th double-double showing of the season. Matthews wasn't far off with 19 kills and worked at a .516 rate on the night while adding seven blocks.

Kayland Jackson added seven kills and a .429 hitting clip while Sophia Cerino added six.

Nadia Dieudonne racked up 50 assists to go along with nine digs, four blocks and three kills in the win.

From the service line, WKU racked up seven aces including three each from Cerino and Hallie Shelton. Ashley Hood struck for an ace as well.

Defensively, WKU saw four Lady Toppers finish with double-digit digs led by senior Emma Kowalkowski's 15. Shelton added 13, Logan Kael had 12 and Briggs posted 11. North Texas was limited to a .169 hitting percentage on the night.

NEXT TIME OUT:
WKU will play its final regular-season road match on Sunday at No. 17 Rice. First serve from Houston, Texas is slated for 1 p.m. CT.

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.