WKU Volleyball Opens League Play with Sweep of Golden Eagles

Sunday, September 29

Bowling Green, Ky.

Noon CT

Western Kentucky University

-151; 10 CUSA

Southern Miss

-014; 02 CUSA

Southern Miss

WKU

WKU Volleyball Opens League Play with Sweep of Golden Eagles

9/29/2019 3:23:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Interviews: Coach Hudson | Dieudonne | Matthews

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Volleyball extended its win streak to 11-consecutive matches with a sweep of Southern Miss to open Conference USA action on Sunday from E.A. Diddle Arena. Lauren Matthews delivered a match-high 15 kills on .636 hitting clip while Kayland Jackson joined her in double digits with 10. Defensively, five different Lady Toppers tallied at least eight digs in the Tops' 11^th sweep of the season.

"We have a chance to be really good and we are approaching it," head coach Travis Hudson opened. "Today was a big step backwards, but a big step backwards with a win is kind of what you hope your step backwards to be, but we have to be better. A week from now we'll have to be way better than we are. We have our rival Middle Tennessee coming in on Friday and a really hot, really good Marshall team coming Sunday, so we have a week to be better and we will be."

With the win, WKU Volleyball improves to 15-1 on the season and 1-0 in Conference USA action. Southern Miss drops to 0-14 with an 0-2 league rating. WKU's 11 sweeps this season are an NCAA best.

In the opening frame, Southern Miss was the first to double digits by the slimmest of margins before the Lady Toppers scored five of the next six points for a 14-11 advantage. The Golden Eagles fought back and knotted the set at 16-16 before pushing ahead to a 22-21 lead late in the frame. Following a WKU timeout, Sophia Cerino found the floor for a kill before Matthews tallied two and Jackson closed the set with a kill of her own as the Tops scored four of the final five points. In the 25-23 win, WKU worked at a match-low .289 offensive rate as Matthews tallied seven of the squad's 17 kills in the set.

Southern Miss held tough in set two, again hitting double digits first to force an early WKU timeout. From there, the Red and White tallied six of the next seven points to take a lead they would not relinquish en route to a 25-18 decision. With things starting to click for the Lady Toppers, WKU worked at a .375 hitting clip while registering four of its seven blocks on the day in the second set.

WKU turned in its best set in the final frame of the day after opening up at 15-9 lead and never looking back. The Lady Toppers claimed the match with a 25-17 third-set win while hitting a collective .448. Sixteen of the squad's 29 attacks found the floor for a kill while Southern Miss was held to just nine kills in the set.

Collectively, WKU's offense registered a .358 hitting percentage while the squad held Southern Miss to a .194 clip.

Nadia Dieudonne posted 37 assists and eight digs to go along with three kills, two block assists and a .429 attack rate while facilitating the Lady Topper offense from start to finish.

Logan Kael was the lone WKU defender to record double digit digs, posting 10. Four more Lady Toppers including Dieudonne, Paige Briggs, Emma Kowalkowski and Hallie Shelton each added eight digs as WKU out-dug USM 49-43.

Kael and Shelton each registered a pair of aces as well while Ashley Hood chipped in one.

Katie Isenbarger and Matthews led WKU's block with three apiece.

In total, the match saw 20 ties and 10 lead changes before the Lady Toppers came out victorious in the three-set decision.

NEXT TIME OUT:
WKU continues its homestand next weekend as Middle Tennessee visits for a Friday night showdown before Marshall comes to town on Sunday.

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.