BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – No. 19 WKU Volleyball's defense shined in Friday's sweep at Florida Atlantic, holding the Owls to a -.012 hitting percentage on the match. The Hilltoppers have now swept 12-consecutive matches and 36 sets along with winning an NCAA leading 20 road matches and 40 regular-season outings against league opponents.
Lauren Matthews struck for double-digit kills for the seventh straight match, tallying 12 while operating at a .611 clip to bring her season average to .498. She also added four total blocks including one solo and now sits at 115 solo blocks on her career – one shy of tying the program's all-time record. She's also up to 379 total blocks on her career, moving into sixth on that Hilltopper career list.
Hallie Shelton struck for five of WKU's six service aces on the match – a new season high. She's up to 174 aces across her career – two shy of tying for third on the Tops' career list. Shelton has now appeared in 141 matches throughout her career, good for a share of sixth place on the WKU all-time list.
WKU at Florida Atlantic – 25-18, 25-15, 25-17
Set 1
Matthews opened the match with a kill before an Ashley Hood ace gave the Hilltoppers a quick 3-1 lead to open weekend action from Boca Raton. FAU battled back to knot things up at 6-6. A Katie Howard kill pushed the Hilltoppers into double digits first at 10-9. While the Owls would stay close until 12-11, a Matthews kill followed by Shelton's first of third-straight aces would force a Florida Atlantic timeout at 14-11. Shelton rattled off two more aces out of the break and Matthews would add another kill after an FAU sideout to force the Owls' second time at 17-12. The hosts pulled back within three at 19-16 before an FAU error followed by back-to-back blocks from Katie Isenbarger and Kayland Jackson pushed back out to a six-point advantage at 22-16. A few points later, Matthews closed the frame the same way she opened it – with a kill.
Set 2
WKU struck first in the second set as well as Katie Howard opened the scoring. The Owls kept things close, trailing just 8-6 before a 3-0 Hilltopper run forced a Florida Atlantic timeout at 11-6. WKU kept the run going out to 6-0 and a 14-6 advantage, prompting the Owls' second stoppage of the frame. The Hilltoppers would open up a 20-9 lead before Florida Atlantic would strike for six points over a nine-point stretch, pulling within 23-15 before a Jennifer Rush kill ended a run. Matthews and Jackson would team up for a block to close set two with a 25-15 win.
Set 3
Florida Atlantic owned its only lead of the match in the third set, taking an early 5-1 lead over the Red and White. WKU would flip the tables with a 3-0 run to take a 9-8 lead and would be the first to double digits at 10-9. The final tie of the match came at 11-11 before the Tops ran off a 7-0 run spanning both FAU timeouts. During that Hilltopper run, Rush added two more kills, Jackson struck for a kill and Isenbarger tallied one of her two solo blocks in the frame. Matthews, Paige Briggs and Isenbarger all added late kills for WKU before Isenbarger and Jackson teamed up for another block to end the match.
Nadia Dieudonne delivered 30 assists to her Hilltopper attackers, leading WKU to a .384 collective hitting percentage. Dieudonne added four digs and three kills to the stat sheet as well.
Briggs would finish just shy of a double double, recording nine kills and nine digs along with three assists while hitting .353. Logan Kael added seven digs for the Hilltopper defense.
Jackson tallied seven kills against one error on 11 swings for a .545 hitting percentage on the day. She recorded five blocks to match Isenbarger for the team high in the category.
NEXT UP
The Hilltoppers' second contest from Boca Raton will be on Saturday again at noon CT from FAU Arena.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- WKU used the lineup of Paige Briggs, Katie Howard, Lauren Matthews, Katie Isenbarger, Kayland Jackson, Nadia Dieudonne and Logan Kael at libero for the second-straight match. This is the fifth different starting lineup to hit the floor for WKU.
- WKU leads all-time series against Florida Atlantic 28-0.
- Hallie Shelton struck for five of WKU's six service aces on the match – a new season high. She's up to 174 aces across her career – two shy of tying for third on the Tops' career list. Shelton has now appeared in 141 matches throughout her career, good for a share of sixth place on the WKU all-time list.
- Matthews added four total blocks including one solo and now sits at 115 solo blocks on her career – one shy of tying the program's all-time record. She's also up to 379 total blocks on her career, moving into sixth on that Hilltopper career list.
- Hilltopper junior Jennifer Rush tallied career highs in kills (3), digs (1) and hitting percentage (.400).
- With the win, the Hilltoppers improve to 19-1 (7-0 C-USA) on the season and 17-0 in three-set matches.
- WKU has now won 36-consecutive sets with 12 straight sweeps since its lone loss.
- The Tops' NCAA-best conference win streak is up to 40 with Friday's victory, continuing to surpass the previous Conference USA record already held by WKU (38).
- Additionally, WKU's NCAA-leading road streak grew to 20 matches with the win.
- With the day's results, head coach Travis Hudson is now 684-217 across his career.
- WKU Volleyball is now up to an all-time program record of 962-492 with Friday's win.
