No. 20 WKU climbed to 16-1 on the season with the win while Eastern Kentucky drops to 5-14. While head coach Travis Hudson improves to 5-1 in his career against Eastern Kentucky, he earned his first-ever win in Richmond.
Matthews struck for 20 kills on 29 swings with just one error to work at a .655 hitting clip. Briggs joined her with 15 kills and a .414 hitting percentage while racking up 11 digs for her sixth double double of the season.
WKU at EKU – 25-16, 25-17, 25-21
Set 1
After trading the first few points, WKU began to string a scoring run together and a floor-denting kill from Matthews pushed the Tops into double digits at 10-6. Briggs struck for her fifth kill in the set to push WKU's lead to 15-9 into the media timeout. The Hilltoppers responded with a 3-1 run out of the break for an 18-10 advantage and force an EKU stoppage. The Colonels called another timeout trailing 23-13 before WKU claimed the set 25-16.
The Hilltoppers operated at a .414 hitting clip with an 82 percent (14-for-17) sideout rating in the frame while holding EKU to just six kills and a .000 rate.
Set 2
A Kayland Jackson kill followed by back-to-back aces from Hallie Shelton pushed WKU out to a quick 3-0 lead to open set two. From there, Matthews would put an end to a long rally with another booming kill for an 8-2 Hilltopper advantage. With neither side calling for a stop, WKU led at the media timeout, 15-10 and Shelton struck for her third ace of the set out of the break. EKU would battle back within two at 16-14 before Matthews denied an overpass. The Colonels took another timeout trailing 23-17 and Kelsey Brangers would strike for an ace out of the break. WKU claimed the set, 25-17.
Matthews rattled off seven kills in the second set and Briggs added six of her own.
Set 3
WKU jumped out to another quick lead in set three, owning advantages at 3-0 and pushing out to 11-4 before EKU called a timeout. Back-to-back Katie Isenbarger kills made the score 18-9 with WKU doubling up the Colonels. The Tops took a 21-13 lead to force the hosts' second timeout before claiming the frame 25-21.
The Hilltoppers racked up 19 kills against just two errors in the final set while hitting a collective .472. Matthews struck for kills on eight of her nine swings in the set and closed the match with her 20th of the night.
Dieudonne led the Hilltoppers to their fifth match of hitting .400 or better this season. The facilitator racked up an absurd 40 assists despite subbing out for Taylor Bebout midway through sets one and three. Dieudonne added five digs and was perfect from the service line in addition to connecting with hitters for kills on .57.1 percent of her sets.
Joining Briggs with double digit digs was Ashley Hood, who finished with 10 for her fifth double-digit outing of the season.
Shelton finished with four aces on the match and is up to nine across her last three outings. She's up to 166 throughout her Hilltopper career, which is 10 aces shy of tying for third on the program's all-time list.
Jackson finished with three blocks while Katie Howard and Katie Isenbarger each added two. Jackson and Isenbarger both struck for seven kills with Isenbarger operating at a .778 clip in the middle.
NEXT UP
Following the midweek, WKU will have an off weekend before returning to Diddle Arena to host Middle Tennessee from October 15-16.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- WKU kept its tweaked lineup for the third-straight match as Paige Briggs, Nadia Dieudonne, Lauren Matthews, Kayland Jackson, Katie Isenbarger, Katie Howard and Kelsey Brangers (libero) earned starts. The Tops' line was its fourth different look of the season and this combination is now 3-0.
- WKU now leads the all-time series with EKU, 10-7.
- Hallie Shelton added four more aces in Wednesday's match, bringing her total to 21 on the season and 166 in her career. She's 10 aces shy of tying for third on the program's career aces list.
- With 15 kills and 11 digs, Paige Briggs recorded her sixth double double of the season and 34th of her career.
- With the win, the Hilltoppers improve to 16-1 (4-0 C-USA) on the season and 14-0 in three-set matches.
- WKU has now won 27-consecutive sets with nine straight sweeps since its lone loss.
- WKU's road win streak grew to 18-consectutive wins with Wednesday's sweep of the Colonels - the longest active mark in NCAA Volleyball.
- With the day's results, head coach Travis Hudson is now 681-217 across his career.
- WKU Volleyball is now up to an all-time program record of 959-492 with Friday's win.
