BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Volleyball celebrated the 900th all-time win in program history after a pair of Friday wins to open its weekend tournament on The Hill. The Lady Toppers opened the day with a hard-fought five-set victory over Northern Kentucky before sweeping Tulsa in the primetime matchup.
"Tonight our offense was a lot better," head coach Travis Hudson opened in Friday night's interview. "We've been defending at a pretty high level and that continued tonight. We were who I want us to be offensively tonight; we were balanced. Lauren really had to carry a big load for us this morning and I don't want to be that team but it's who we had to be earlier today."
Lauren Matthews scorched the statsheet for the Red and White on the day, racking up 30 kills at a .421 offensive clip while notching 10 blocks as well. Paige Briggs registered a team-high 36 digs as the WKU defense limited the opposing offenses to a .145 hitting percentage on the day.
Sophia Cerino continued to prove why she's one of the NCAA's best from behind the service line as the senior combined for 12 aces between the two victories. She entered the weekend ranked fifth in the country in total aces and continues to climb.
"I take a lot of pride in my serve and getting opponents stopped and just being as aggressive as I can be," Cerino shared. I feel like that's such an honor, it's so cool to be up there in the NCAA rankings."
WKU Volleyball now sits at 12-1 on the season and has stretched its winning streak to eight-straight matches. Northern Kentucky sits at 5-5 while Tulsa moved to 7-5 overall.
WKU 3, NORTHERN KENTUCKY 2
After dropping just its third opening frame of the season, WKU Volleyball would bounce back and ultimately claim a five-set victory over Northern Kentucky to open weekend action from Diddle Arena.
Matthews struck for a career-high 22 kills – the first 20-kill outing by a Lady Topper this season – while hitting at a .415 clip. The sophomore added a team-high six blocks in the win.
Setter Nadia Dieudonne came just one kill shy of a triple double, as she racked up nine kills, 45 assists and 17 digs. The junior facilitated the WKU offense to a .180 clip with 63 kills on 189 attacks. WKU's attack was at its best during crunch time as the Lady Toppers hit a match-high .312 in the decisive fifth set.
Freshman Paige Briggs registered her seventh double-double performance of the season, tallying 16 kills and 23 digs. Her 23-dig effort was a season-best and her eighth double-digit dig outing of the year.
Sophia Cerino registered five aces in the outing, marking her third match of the season with such. She also added eight kills, six digs, three blocks and two assists.
NKU went up 1-0 in the match after a 25-22 first-set victory. The Norse limited the WKU attack to a mere .083 reading. The Lady Toppers recorded 21 digs in the frame led by five apiece from Dieudonne and Emma Kowalkowski.
WKU would even the match at 1-1 after a 25-18 set two victory. The Lady Toppers would lead wire to wire after Matthews opened the scoring with her first of seven kills in the frame.
Out of the break, a Kayland Jackson kill put WKU on the board first before NKU would strike right back for the first of five ties in the set. Tied at 9-9, the Norse would be the first to double digits with a service ace before WKU would rattle off five-straight points for a 14-10 lead it would not relinquish.
Not done, Northern Kentucky outlasted WKU in a 27-25 fourth-set decision for force the Lady Toppers into their second five-set outing of the season. The fourth set saw 11 ties and four lead changes. WKU trailed 24-21 and was able to avoid three-straight set points and even the match at 24-24. NKU and WKU would alternate kills the next three points before the Norse would take the frame on a block assist.
Heading to a fifth set for just the second time on the season, WKU opened up a quick 3-0 lead and never looked back. NKU pulled with hone at 6-5 before the Lady Toppers scored five of the next six points for an 11-6 lead. After Dieudonne registered her ninth kill of the match, the Tops would force an NKU hitting error for the final tally in the 15-9 set five decision.
"This is a great group; they really stay composed," Hudson shared of the team's showing in the fifth set. "As long as they're doing that, we just want to be aggressive. You don't want to be conservative in those and I thought we did a good job of letting it fly."
WKU 3, TULSA 0
After a slow start to the morning match, WKU wasted no time jumping out to a sizeable lead over Tulsa Friday night. Serving first for the Lady Toppers was Cerino, who would rattle off three aces to put WKU ahead 4-2 – a lead the squad would never relinquish. The Red and White would push ahead to a 13-4 lead before working all the way out to a 23-12 advantage. WKU would claim the opening frame 25-16 after hitting .320 as a team and holding the Hurricane to a .000 rate. Cerino would finish with four aces in the opening set alone.
WKU would again work out to a quick lead at 10-4 before pushing all the way out to another double-digit lead at 21-10. The hosts would claim a 25-15 second-set victory off Briggs' fifth kill of the night. The WKU offense operated at a .407 attack rate, helping the team to a 73-percent sideout rate.
The Lady Toppers saved their best for last, coming out of the intermission and jumping out to yet another 10-4 lead. Tulsa would use both its timeouts by the time WKU took a 13-5 advantage and the Tops would open up another double-digit lead. Cerino's sixth kill of the match would be the final tally in the 25-13 third-set victory. The Lady Toppers racked up 17 kills on a .361 hitting clip in the frame while working at an 85-percent sideout rating.
In total, the match saw just three ties and two lead changes.
Kayland Jackson led WKU with nine kills on a .615 hitting clip while Matthews and Briggs were right behind her with eight kills each. Katie Isenbarger added seven while working at a .462 offensive mark.
As a team, WKU hit .364 in the match with 41 kills against just nine errors on 88 swings. Tulsa was held to 24 kills, 13 errors and 76 attacks for a .145 rate.
Dieudonne collected 32 assists, three kills, two digs and a block as the main offensive facilitator.
Briggs (13) and Logan Kael (10) each recorded double-digit digs while Hallie Shelton added seven. Shelton also recorded a pair of aces while Cerino led the Tops in the category with seven.
Matthews finished with a team-best four blocks.
COACH HUDSON ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TULSA WIN:
"This is a big win. A lot of people were talking about Tulsa prior to the year being an at-large type team, just like Tulane. Obviously you hope to win a conference championship, but if you don't and your name is in the room with a bunch of other names like Tulsa, then having the head-to-head result is really nice to have. Much respect to both of those programs; they're both really good with really good players and are coaches really well. We're fortunate to get two quality wins and continue to move forward."
HUDSON ON 900 ALL-TIME WINS:
"Anytime you hit a milestone like this one, it makes me flip back through the rolodex of all the great kids I've had the opportunity to coach and what they've meant to this program. This is truly a program that was built by the players and players of the past continue to have their fingerprints all over the success we have today. It's something we're very proud of and certainly embrace the opportunity to celebrate."
SOPHIA CERINO ON 900 ALL-TIME WINS:
"It's so cool. Just to be a part of a culture like we have and being used to having 20-win seasons. It's really cool, we definitely have something special here and it's really amazing to be a part of it."
NEXT TIME OUT:
WKU will wrap up weekend action on Saturday with a 5 p.m. CT tilt with Samford. With a win, the Lady Toppers would win their third of four early season tournaments before heading into conference action next weekend.
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.
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