"I knew serving was going to be a big key in this game and it certainly was, because that's a very talented Notre Dame team," head coach Travis Hudson opened following the day's second win. "If you're going to get stops, you're going to have to get them disrupted and our kids were really, really good from the service line all night. As much as we struggled defending this morning, that's how good we were defending this afternoon. I'm just really proud of our kids. We had a game plan and we'd spent several days preparing for Notre Dame and I thought we executed perfectly."
WKU at No. 25 NOTRE DAME – W, 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-23)
Set 1
The Hilltoppers wasted no time getting ahead in Friday's primetime matchup, opening up an 8-5 lead. A few points later, the Red and White strung together a 4-0 run to push ahead to a 14-9 advantage. From there, WKU pushed ahead to an 18-10 margin thanks to a 7-1 run before closing the opening frame with a 25-15 win.
Set 2
Notre Dame scored the first point of the second frame and kept the margin tight throughout the frame with 10 ties against just one lead change. A kill from Matthews made the score 17-16 to give the Tops the lead for good en route to the 25-22 win. WKU operated at a .321 clip in the frame with 16 kills including two from Jackson in the last three points to secure a 2-0 lead.
Set 3
Katie Isenbarger opened the third set with an ace before the sides traded the next four points. WKU would push ahead to an 8-5 lead, forcing the Fighting Irish to call an early timeout. Both benches went on runs resulting in a 12-12 tie, which prompted a WKU timeout. A combined block from Matthews and Jackson pushed the Hilltoppers ahead 20-18 and force another ND stoppage. The Irish scored out of the timeout before Matthews answered with her 10th kill of the match and 1,000th of her career. WKU owned a slim 22-20 lead before Notre Dame knotted things up at 23-23, however, an Irish attack error followed by a block assist from Briggs and Isenbarger secured the set and win for the Hilltoppers.
Offensively, WKU operated at a .278 rate in the top-25 clash while holding the Fighting Irish to a .120 hitting clip with a stout defensive effort. Dieudonne notched 36 assists to bring her average to 12.33 helpers per set across the day.
WKU held Notre Dame's two-time All-American Charley Niego to a -.080 rate with four kills against six errors in the match.
SCHEDULE
Friday, August 27 – No. 16 WKU def. Oakland, 3-0
Friday, August 27 – No. 16 def. No. 25 Notre Dame, 3-0
Saturday, August 28 – noon CT | No. 16 WKU vs. Loyola | Stats | WKU Radio (ESPN 102.7 FM)
POST-MATCH NOTES
- WKU kept its same starting lineup from the spring for both of its 2021 opening day matches with Paige Briggs, Nadia Dieudonne, Avri Davis, Lauren Matthews, Kayland Jackson, Logan Kael and Katie Isenbarger.
- Friday's meeting was the first between Oakland and WKU in program history, giving WKU a 1-0 lead in the all-time series. With the win over Oakland, WKU has now won three-straight season opening matches.
- WKU improves to 3-0 all-time against Notre Dame, sweeping two meetings and taking a five-set decision. The Hilltoppers have won a neutral, home and mostly recently away match against the Irish.
- The last time Notre Dame hosted a ranked opponent to open a season came in 2007 in a straight-set loss to No. 9 Minnesota. WKU replicated the 3-0 outcome in the Irish's 2021 opener.
- Freshmen Kelsey Brangers and Katie Howard made their Hilltopper debuts against Oakland.
- With a kill to close the day's opening match, Paige Briggs secured a double-double performance (10 kills, 13 digs). She went on to add 13 more kills in the evening sweep of Notre Dame.
- Lauren Matthews tallied a match-high 15 kills to bring her career total to 990 in the day's opening tilt. She operated at a .467 clip (15-1-30) while striking for kills on 50 percent of her attacks.
- Senior Lauren Matthews secured her 1,000th career kill with her final strike of the Tops' win at No. 25 Notre Dame Friday night. She closed the match with 10 kills to put her right at the mark.
- With the wins, head coach Travis Hudson is now 667-216 across his career. He is now 19-8 all-time in season openers.
- WKU Volleyball is now up to an all-time program record of 947-491 with Friday's wins over Oakland and Notre Dame.
- Due to last season being moved to the spring, WKU's 124-day break marked the shortest offseason in program history from the Tops' Sweet 16 match on April 18 to their season opener.
- Since joining Conference USA prior to the 2014 campaign, WKU Volleyball is now 15-12 against Power 5 opponents. The Hilltoppers' have claimed their first opportunity against a Power 5 squad this season with Friday night's win at Notre Dame.
- WKU is now 11-19 all-time when facing a top-25 squad including a 10-11 mark since the beginning of the 2012 campaign following its Opening Day win at No. 25 Notre Dame.
