WKU Volleyball: Lady Tops Sweep Owls, Set Up Second-Round Meeting With Cardinals
Western Kentucky volleyball swept the Kennesaw State Owls — 25–23, 25–20, 25–23 — to win their First Round matchup in the NCAA Tournament…
Western Kentucky volleyball swept the Kennesaw State Owls — 25–23, 25–20, 25–23 — to win their First Round matchup in the NCAA Tournament in front of a program record 4,514 fans at E.A. Diddle Arena Thursday evening.
The first two sets were sloppy affairs for WKU, with the first set being less so than the second.
WKU led the first set wire-to-wire, jumping out to a 3–0 lead and was able to stave off KSU from there, never allowing the Owls to tie in the opening set.
The second set, however, was a different story; KSU jumped out to a 10–6 lead, as KSU was having no problems on offense, hitting .455 to open the set.
WKU was a bit jittery logging a hitting percentage of just .200.
The poor start led to a Travis Hudson timeout to calm the nerves and, once calmed, WKU came out firing, scoring three-straight points to pull within one, and eventually taking a 13–12 lead just a few points later.
The Lady Tops scored five consecutive points to end the set, winning it 25–20, and outscored the Owls 19–10 to close the set out.
WKU played their sharpest volleyball when it counted most, in the eventual final frame. In the third set, the Lady Tops hit a match-best .542 and held the Owls to just .323, forcing nine errors by KSU.
Paige Briggs led the way offensively for the Lady Tops, logging 11 kills and hitting .379.
Conference USA Player of the Year Lauren Matthews added nine kills and a .474 hitting percentage on 19 total attempts at the ball.
Libero Logan Kael was exceptional on the defensive end of the floor, logging 10 of WKU’s 28 digs. Nadia Dieudonne led the way with 31 assists for WKU.
As tight as the Lady Tops played in the third set, it was mistakes from the first and second sets by Kennesaw State that helped WKU; KSU hit just .206, logged 11 service errors and 22 total attacking errors (WKU, on the other hand, had just eight attacking errors).
WKU now advances to the second round, where they’ll face Louisville, who swept Samford (25–21, 25–12, 25–22) in the first game on Thursday from Diddle.
Louisville beat WKU back on September 6 in four sets (25–18, 22–25, 25–22, 25–15).