Friday, October 28

Travis Hudson Collects 400th Career Win as Lady Toppers Sweep Denver
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Western Kentucky University head coach Travis Hudson recorded his 400th career win Friday night as the Lady Toppers swept Denver 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-13) at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Hudson has compiled a record of 400-175 over the past 17 seasons, good for a winning percentage of .695. He is the winningest coach in WKU history and leads all active Sun Belt coaches in league wins with 179.

WKU (24-3, 11-1 Sun Belt Conference) won its seventh straight league match behind a .376 team hitting mark, the highest of the season for the Lady Toppers. WKU tallied 51 kills while committing only 13 attack errors.

Denver (10-14, 7-5) tallied 25 kills and was limited to a .141 hitting percentage. The Pioneers entered the match as the best blocking team in the conference and tallied 10 blocks to WKU's seven.

Outside hitter Jordyn Skinner led the offense with 14 kills and a .276 hitting percentage followed by middle hitter Tiffany Elmore with nine kills. Elmore posted a hitting mark of .667 as the senior committed only one attack error on 12 attempts. Classmate Lindsay Williams added eight kills and sophomore Janee' Diggins had seven kills.

A-State Volleyball Remains Undefeated at Home
JONESBORO, Ark. (10/28/11) – The Arkansas State volleyball team remained undefeated at home this season with a 25-21, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday night.

ASU (18-7, 9-2 SBC) won first two sets and went into the break after the second set with a 2-0 lead. The Red Wolves looked poised to take the third set as well and led 20-17 late in the set. However, the Rajin’ Cajuns (10-17, 2-9) closed the gap to 21-20, forcing A-State head coach Justin Ingram to take a timeout. A kill by Cayla Fielder gave ASU a 22-20 lead, but ULL scored the set’s final five points to take the 25-22 win.

The Red Wolves responded in the third set and quickly pulled ahead for a 17-13 edge. Amanda Chaparro, Taylor Szypulski and A’Zlynn Thompson helped push the lead to 22-14 with kills. Szypulski gave ASU a 23-15 lead with a kill and a service error from the Rajin’ Cajuns setup a match point opportunity for A-State. Jasmine Terry put the set and match away on the next point to give the Red Wolves a 3-1 match victory.

Egan Tallies First-Career Double-Double as FIU Bests Troy
MIAMI (Oct. 28, 2011) - Redshirt freshman Jessica Egan tallied a team-leading 46 assists and a career-high 12 digs for her first-career double-double as FIU defeated Sun Belt Conference foe Troy, 3-1 (25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 25-18) on Friday night at U.S. Century Bank Arena.

The win marks the fourth-straight for FIU as the Panthers improve to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in conference play. With the loss, Troy falls to 14-10 (4-6 SBC).

The first set saw FIU take a three-point lead at 18-15 before the senior duo of Andrea Lakovic and Sabrina Gonzalez teamed up for a block to put the score at 19-15. Gonzalez followed up with a kill to make it 20-15 and force a Troy timeout. Out of the break, the Trojans committed a pair of errors to bring the score to 22-15.

Following another timeout, Troy broke the FIU scoring rally with a kill but Gonzalez struck again, giving the Panthers a 23-16 advantage. Junior Marija Prsa recorded a service ace to bring up set-point for FIU at 24-16. The Trojans responded with a score, but junior Jovana Bjelica followed with a kill of her own to give FIU a 25-17 set-one win and a 1-0 lead for the match.

JAGS SNAP SEVEN-MATCH SKID WITH 3-0 SWEEP OF FLORIDA ATLANTIC
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The University of South Alabama volleyball team snapped its seven-match losing streak Friday evening with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20) road Sun Belt Conference victory over Florida Atlantic at FAU Arena.

McCoy filled in for Jaguar head coach Nicole Keshock who was back in Mobile after delivering her third child earlier this week.  

With the win, USA improves to 8-14 on the year and 3-7 in the conference.  The Jags will next travel to take on Florida International on Sunday with first serve set for noon (CT) at U.S. Century Bank Arena.  

Freshman outside hitter Maureen Ros led the Jaguars offensively, while Melissa Waelter, Lea Thurm and Amber Wyatt each added seven kills apiece.  Junior setter Katariina Kananen also chipped in with her eighth double-double of the season with 30 assists and a match-high 11 digs.  

The Owls fell to 3-20 overall and 0-11 in the Sun Belt with the loss.  Georgia Robinson led FAU with nine kills of her own.  

Blue Raiders sweep past North Texas for 13th straight win
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Three Blue Raiders tallied double-digit kills on Friday night to help lead the Middle Tennessee volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-17) victory over visiting North Texas at Alumni Memorial Gym.

Wistrick led the offensive outburst, which saw the Blue and White out-hit the Mean Green .354 to .078. The senior tallied 11 kills on the evening to just one error and hit at a remarkable .455 rate.

Maria Szivos and Ashley Adams posted 10 kills in the match, with the latter hitting .444. Oyinlola Oladinni hit .467 and logged seven kills.

Morgan Peterson was responsible for directing the offense for much of the evening and put up her fourth career double-double with 32 assists and 11 digs.

Defensively, Brynne Henderson tied for the match high with 12 digs, and Lindsey Purvis chipped in seven.

Lindsay Cheatham and Oladinni helmed the defense at the net, recording six and five blocks respectively as Middle Tennessee out-blocked the Mean Green 11.5 to 4.0.

UALR Volleyball Wins Thrilling 3-2 Match on Dig Pink Night
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—After being down two sets to one, the UALR volleyball team won set four by four points and took set five by two to win 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-21, 15-13) Friday at The Jack Stephens Center for Dig Pink Night. The Trojans improve to 10-15 overall and 5-6 in Sun Belt Conference action.

Edina Begic led the team in kills with 26 and recorded her tenth double-double of the season with a team-high of 18 digs. Paige Gantar added 12 kills, while Eva Xie recorded 11 kills.

Emily Pepperman, Marleen de Zoete, and Daniele Souza Moura each recorded double-digit digs with 17, 13, and ten respectively.

In the first set, the Trojans recorded the team’s lowest attack percentage recording just eight kills on 35 attempts and nine errors for a -.029 mark.