With their 22nd sweep of the season, the Hilltoppers have now won 21-straight matches to improve to 28-1 overall on the season. WKU has also matched its program-record with four wins over Power 5 teams in the same season, sitting at 4-1 in such matches. In the calendar year, the Tops are now 51-2.
South Carolina closes the season with a 14-15 record after earning an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
WKU vs. South Carolina – 25-20, 25-13, 25-19
Set 1
Matthews opened play from O'Keefe Gymnasium with a kill for a 1-0 Hilltopper lead Friday evening. All tied at 10-10, the Hilltoppers would pull away with a 5-0 run into the media timeout at 15-10. Out of the break, Paige Briggs ended a long rally with a kill and South Carolina called its first timeout of the frame trailing 16-10. From there, the Hilltoppers pushed ahead to a 21-17 lead thanks to back-to-back kills from Matthews to force the Gamecocks' second timeout of the set. The Hilltoppers would take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 first-set win will hitting a blistering .536 in the frame.
Briggs struck for six of her eight kills in the set while Jackson added five and Matthews tallied four.
Set 2
South Carolina got on the board first in the second set for its lone lead of the match before the Hilltoppers took the lead for good at 4-3. The Gamecocks called timeouts trailing 9-4 and 13-6 in the frame but WKU doubled up the score at 18-9 before pushing its lead to double digits at 21-9. WKU claimed a 2-0 lead in the match with a decisive 25-13 win in set two.
While the Tops worked at a .312 clip in the frame, WKU held SC to a mere .030 efficiency and just seven ills in the set.
Set 3
WKU scored the first point of set three and another kill from Matthews would give the Tops a quick 5-2 lead. The Hilltoppers were the first to double digits for the third-straight set with a 10-6 advantage before pushing ahead to a 13-7 lead to force a South Carolina timeout. A 3-0 run from the Gamecocks forced WKU's only called timeout of the match up 16-14. Out of the break, Matthews registered a kill and the Tops would push to a 20-16 margin and force South Carolina' final stoppage. Kelsey Brangers would strike for an ace down the stretch before Jackson secured the 25-19 third-set win with a kill.
Friday night's match saw 11 ties and one lead change.
Nadia Dieudonne facilitated the Hilltopper offense to a .375 hitting clip while recording 41 assists. The offense struck for kills of 53.9 percent of her sets. Dieudonne added six digs and two blocks as well.
Matthews was spectacular again with a match-high 13 kills on 22 errorless swings for a .591 hitting percentage. She added three blocks as well. Jackson was right there with her, striking for 12 kills on 20 swings with one error for a .550 hitting clip.
Briggs delivered another near double-double effort with eight kills and nine digs along with an ace. Avri Davis added six kills (.417) while Katie Isenbarger tallied five more. Isenbarger also matched Matthews with three blocks, including two solo and added six digs.
Nine different Hilltoppers recorded a dig in the match. Those efforts were led by Briggs' nine digs while Logan Kael and Hallie Shelton each added eight.
Four Tops struck for an ace including Briggs, Brangers, Shelton and Kael.
NEXT UP
With the First Round win, WKU advances to its third-straight NCAA Tournament Second Round match to face weekend host No. 13-ranked Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are the eighth seed in the postseason tournament. First serve from O'Keefe Gym is slated for 6 p.m. CT.
POST-MATCH NOTES
- WKU used the lineup of Paige Briggs, Avri Davis, Lauren Matthews, Katie Isenbarger, Kayland Jackson, Nadia Dieudonne and Logan Kael at libero for the 13th time this season. This was the Hilltopper lineup to start the season and the group owns an 12-1 record.
- WKU improves to 2-2 all-time against South Carolina as the Tops claimed the first meeting between the sides since 1993.
- The Hilltoppers are now 4-1 against Power 5 opponents during the 2021 campaign. Four wins matches the program single-season record.
- WKU is now 7-13 all-time in the NCAA Tournament while Kayland Jackson, Hallie Shelton and Taylor Bebout improved to 5-3 in the Tournament in their careers.
- With the win, the Hilltoppers improve to 28-1 (12-0 C-USA) on the season, winning their last 21 matches.
- Hallie Shelton struck for another ace to bring her career total to 185. She continues to close in on the program record of 206 held by Lindsey Gould.
- Already appearing in more matches than any other Hilltopper in program history, Shelton also continues to reset the WKU record for sets played at 515. The previous record of 510 was held by Lindsey Gould (2006-09).
- With the day's results, head coach Travis Hudson is now 693-217 across his career.
- WKU Volleyball is now up to an all-time program record of 971-492 with Friday's win.
