BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Volleyball improved to 6-0 on the season adding another sweep to their record. Behind strong serving and an electric .452 hitting percentage, the Hilltoppers continued their impressive start. WKU's defense held its third-straight opponent below a .100 attack rate as the Owls recorded a .022 rate on the day.
"We had a little bit of a sluggish start early and I didn't like what I saw out of the gate but we locked in pretty quickly and were awfully good for the rest of the match," head coach Travis Hudson opened. "I thought we really controlled it on our side and I thought we did one of the hardest things there is to do in this game, which is staying sharp even when you're playing with a pretty comfortable lead and I thought that was a real sign of maturity from our team."
WKU is now 18-1 on a set-by-set record and has swept five of its six matches this season. Florida Atlantic (0-3) and WKU (6-0) play again tomorrow in Diddle Arena at noon to close out the first of six scheduled Conference USA series for both squads this spring.
Every Hilltopper available for Sunday's match would make an appearance in at least one set including all three freshmen.
"I'm just really excited that we've gotten to this point pretty seamlessly without any problems or cancellations," Katie Isenbarger began. "It's going to be about everyone on the team every single day being ready to play because you don't know what's going to happen. I think especially today, it was awesome to get some of the younger players in. Something Travis said in the locker room after the game was that he's not putting in players just to make them feel good, they're an important part of this team and there might be a time where we're going to have Shannon Keck and Sam Canner and Jennifer Rush playing and it's not that far off and they could be our starters. I think they did a really good job today."
Florida Atlantic jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the first set until WKU claimed the lead with four-consecutive from Logan Kael. With two kills from Lauren Matthews and Nadia Dieudonne flipping one over the net, the Tops extended their lead to 13-8 forcing a Florida Atlantic timeout. The Owls hung around for most of the set but could never pull within four points after relinquishing their early lead. With strong serving from Briggs to close out the frame, the Red and White won the set 25-18. The Tops worked at a .405 attack rate in the set while holding FAU to a mark of .189.
WKU jumped out to a 7-2 lead to begin the second set forcing an early FAU timeout. Dieudonne served four straight to extend the Hilltopper lead to 12-4. The strong serving continued from Hallie Shelton and Briggs. With multiple errors from Florida Atlantic, WKU finished the set on a 5-1 run to win 25-11 and go up 2-0 in the match. The Tops hit .391 in the set while holding the opposition to a .090 average.
Behind three straight kills from Briggs, WKU jumped out to a 12-1 lead forcing Florida Atlantic to call two quick timeouts. WKU cruised in the final set and claimed fourth sweep of the season. The Tops never trailed, and ultimately won the set 25-7 on a double block by Matthews and Dieudonne. The Hilltoppers worked at a scorching .688 offensive clip while the defense stifled the Owls attack, holding them to a -.192 mark.
Paige Briggs finished with 13 kills on 25 attempts as well as 10 digs for her fourth double double of the season.
Katie Isenbarger and Dieudonne each had a trio of blocks to lead the Tops. Dieudonne added 31 assists and five digs as well to help WKU to a scorching .452 hitting percentage – WKU's best attack rate of the season.
WKU would finish with six aces, three coming from Ashley Hood, two from Shelton and one from Briggs. The Tops would finish with just two service errors while keeping the Owls from getting set in their offense.
"I think serving played a really big part in spreading out those last two sets," Hood began. "Hallie had a run of 10 points or so and I think that's really going to be a focus going forward. We all really got to work this week serving."
The Hilltopper defense saw three players with double-digit dig numbers. Hood led the Tops with 12 digs while Shelton and Briggs each added 10.
"WKU Volleyball has been built on Ashley Hoods and Katie Isenbargers," Hudson began. "We're blessed when we have a kid like a Paige Briggs that can come in here and from day one be a special talent and impact us a great deal on the court but it's the Ashley Hoods and Katie Isenbargers that are the reason why I coach. You look and see that we're a top-25 caliber program every year and it's not because every kid we recruit is a top 25 kid, I'd like that to be the case but it's just not. We have to find kids that have it in them and have the right mindset and will just go work. If you made me name the two kids off our roster who come in every single day and work at this game with a great attitude and with determination I would start with Ashley Hood and Katie Isenbarger. I'm really happy to see them both playing really well but I'm not surprised to see them both playing really well because they're a couple kids that needed a little bit longer in training to figure some things out and figure out who they were. Because they accept coaching and come back and work at it every day, they're turning themselves into really important pieces of our team and so I'm really proud of both of them and again, it's what this program has been built on."
The Red and White held Florida Atlantic to just a .022 hitting percentage on the match – the fourth time this season holding an opponent to a sub-.100 mark.
With today's third-set victory of 25-7, WKU has now held multiple opponents to single digits in a set for the first time in a season since 2015. The Hilltoppers also limited Mercer to just nine points in a frame back on Jan. 24, 2021.
LOOKING AHEAD
WKU Volleyball will be back in action again tomorrow as they take on Florida Atlantic again. The Tops will have their first two road matches next weekend when they travel to Virginia to take on Old Dominion on February 14th and 15th.
WIESEMANN ORTHODONTICS
Your 2020-21 WKU Volleyball spring season is presented by Wiesemann Orthodontics – get the smile you have always wanted!
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.
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