With the win, WKU has won 30-consecutive sets and now sits at 17-1 on the 2021 season and 40-2 across the year 2021. The Hilltoppers climb to 5-0 in Conference USA while MTSU moved to 7-6 overall and 5-2 in league play.
Lauren Matthews continued her tear through opposing defenses, tallying 13 kills on a .667 hitting percentage to raise her season hitting average to .478. Matthews entered the weekend with a mark of .470, which ranked fourth in all of NCAA Volleyball.
Collectively, the Hilltoppers tallied 11 blocks on the night while the Blue Raiders finished with zero.
WKU vs. Middle Tennessee – 25-15, 25-12, 25-20
Set 1
Middle Tennessee struck for the first point of the night and would own a lead as long as 3-2 before WKU would open up a 5-0 run that included a pair of Logan Kael aces before MTSU called a timeout trailing 7-3. Matthews third kill of the frame gave the Tops a 14-9 edge and forced the Blue Raiders' second timeout. Out of the break, Hallie Shelton headed back to the line for six serves to push WKU out to a 19-9 advantage. While the visitors would hold off three set points, an attack error would ultimately give WKU the 25-15 first-set decision. The Hilltoppers operated at a .480 clip in the frame and struck for four aces.
Set 2
WKU led from start to finish in the second set as Kayland Jackson struck for one of her six kills of the night to open the frame. The Hilltoppers would quickly push out to an 8-1 advantage in a frame that saw zero timeouts taken from either bench. A Katie Isenbarger kill pushed WKU into double digits with a 10-3 lead. The Tops would push out to an 11-point lead at 19-8 before back-to-back Blue Raider attack errors made it 22-9. Avri Davis and Shannon Keck would combine for the set-ending block for the final 25-12 win. Matthews added five kills in the set while the Hilltopper defense held MTSU to a -.030 mark.
Set 3
Out of the long break, Middle Tennessee would take a quick 4-0 lead and would hit double-digits first at 10-5. WKU would take its lone timeout of the night trailing 13-7. After back-to-back points by the Hilltoppers MTSU took a timeout up 16-12. Nadia Dieudonne continued her service run out of the break to knot the match at 16-16 for a 7-0 Hilltopper run. The Blue Raiders would lead once more at 19-18 but a kill from Jackson tied things up for the final time. From there, three-straight MTSU hitting errors – including a pair of WKU blocks – pushed the Tops to a 22-19 advantage before another Jackson kill made it a 4-0 run. While Katie Isenbarger's late service run came to an end at 23-20, Briggs and Matthews would seal the deal with back-to-back kills for the 25-20 third-set win.
The third set would see four ties and three lead changes but WKU's .414 hitting percentage to MTSU's .100 and a 5-0 margin in blocks helped set the Tops apart.
Dieudonne racked up 30 assists on the night to go along with four digs, three kills, two blocks and an ace while leading WKU to its sixth outing hitting .400 or better this season.
Paige Briggs turned in nine kills on .318 hitting, eight digs, two aces and a block on the night. Jackson operated at a .556 clip with six kills on nine swings along with a trio of blocks.
Matthews led the way in blocking with five while Avri Davis and Katie Isenbarger each added three.
Kael finished with a team-high nine digs while 10 different Hilltoppers registered a dig in the match.
From the service line, Kael, Shelton and Briggs each struck for a pair of aces while Dieudonne added one herself.
NEXT UP
WKU and Middle Tennessee will square off again at noon CT on Saturday from Diddle Arena for the second match of the C-USA East Division series.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- WKU brought back the previous lineup of Paige Briggs, Katie Howard, Lauren Matthews, Kelsey Brangers, Kayland Jackson, Nadia Dieudonne and Logan Kael at libero. That combination is now 4-0 on the season.
- WKU leads all-time series against Middle Tennessee 53-16 and has now won 18-consecutive matches against the Blue Raiders dating back to 2011.
- With two more aces, Hallie Shelton is up to 11 across her last four outings. She now sits at 168 as a Hilltopper, which is eight aces shy of tying for third on the program's all-time list.
- With 13 kills, Lauren Matthews moved into 13th on WKU's career kills list at 1,219, passing Jessica Willard (1998-01; 1,207 kills).
- With the win, the Hilltoppers improve to 17-1 (5-0 C-USA) on the season and 15-0 in three-set matches.
- WKU has now won 30-consecutive sets with 10 straight sweeps since its lone loss.
- The Tops' NCAA-best conference win streak is up to 38 with Friday's victory.
- With the day's results, head coach Travis Hudson is now 682-217 across his career.
- WKU Volleyball is now up to an all-time program record of 960-492 with Friday's win.
