Western Kentucky defeats MTSU to win conference tournament

By: Eduardo Almaguer / Staff Writer

From day one of the regular season, when the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers swept Sacramento State, the Hilltoppers never stopped the win parade.

After Nov.19, that parade will be charging full speed ahead onto the national stage.

WKU beat rival Middle Tennessee in the Sun Belt Conference Championship match on Saturday afternoon in four sets (25-22, 12-25, 25-18, 25-18) to gain an automatic bid into the 2011 Women’s NCAA Volleyball Tournament. It is the first time WKU won the SBC championship in three years.

“We’d been waiting for this match the whole year,” said senior Lindsay Williams, fresh out of a dog pile of cheering teammates. “It’d been something we’ve been trying to work for and it’s been something that’s been our goal.”

Both teams had very unusual numbers that simply was not the norm for either squad. While a .175 hitting percentage is usually a mark that a losing team carries, that is exactly what WKU had, which edged out the Blue Raider’s .162. Hilltopper Jordyn Skinner, usually an offensive powerhouse, notched only 13 kills, though she did achieve a match-high 17 digs to complete a double-double.

Only one Blue Raider, Ashley Adams, eclipsed six kills in the match as Western Kentucky’s defense became impenetrable in the third and fourth sets.

It was an extremely tense battle as the first set kicked off, as any lead that was taken by one team was immediately squandered by the other. Once back-to-back errors by the Blue Raiders gave WKU a 12-10 lead, however, the Hilltoppers managed to hold on tightly.

A service error by sophomore Ashley Potts brought Middle Tennessee to within one point, 20-19, and the tension in the arena only grew. With the score 23-22, Hilltoppers Paige Wessel and Tiffany Elmore ripped back-to back kills to capture the first set.

“What you saw [in the first set] were two teams playing at a very high level,” said WKU head coach Travis Hudson.

Only minutes into the second set, MT had absolutely clobbered WKU. Marred by 12 errors in the set, WKU found themselves down 17-5. Everything from their defense to offense was falling apart.

“We got it handed to us the second set,” said Offensive Player of the Year Jordyn Skinner.

Middle Tennessee did not stop the punishment, eventually capturing the set 25-12.

Hudson had one message for his team after the set: Let it go.

And let it go they did as WKU broke a tie in the third set to lead 16-12 with a kill by Elmore, who stomped and screamed in celebration after her score. The Hilltoppers increased the their lead to eight points after Maria Szivos committed an attacking error for the Blue Raiders.

The large gap was too much for Middle Tennessee as they fell 25-18.

Riding their 2-1 momentum, WKU took yet another big lead in the final set of the match, 18-12. The few WKU fans who traveled south to watch their team could smell a victory, as they started stomping their feet on the bleachers.

WKU’s sterling defense prevented Middle Tennessee from overcoming the large gap as Skinner slammed down the final kill of the tournament to give her team the championship.

The Hilltoppers will have to wait until Nov.27 for the NCAA selection show to find out whom they will face and where they will play. WKU, who has never won a match in the NCAA Tournament, will try again for a sixth time in school history.

“This is a team that somebody will have to beat because we won’t beat ourselves,” said Hudson.