In front of a packed Diddle Arena, WKU extended its Sun Belt Conference win streak by defeating the FIU Panthers to kick off Hilltopper Hysteria, 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-15).

Junior defensive specialist Ashley Potts, who finished the night with 12 digs, said the atmosphere in Diddle was “awesome.”

“The crowd was just awesome tonight,” Potts said. “It was good getting the fans here tonight because we know if we play well they’ll come back later and support us.”

FIU struck first blood to open Hysteria.

The Lady Toppers responded with a 5-0 scoring run fired off by freshmen Haley Bodway. The remainder of the set was all WKU as the Lady Toppers prevailed 25-14, holding the Panthers to a negative hitting percentage.

The Lady Toppers used an early 6-0 to pave the way for a 25-19 set victory to lead 2-0 at the break.

Coach Travis Hudson said the team didn’t look very sharp on the night, but couldn’t point out exactly what he saw as a flaw in the Lady Topper’s play.

“They have a really unorganized system and it’s hard to play clean,” Hudson said. “I’m not disappointed how we played tonight.

“We had some offensive errors that hurt us at times, but I’ve been coaching long enough to know you’re going to win some like this too.”

After the Panthers scored on the opening serve of the third set, a another 6-0 run put the Lady Toppers up 9-4. FIU would pull the score within two, but that was as close as the Panthers would get. 

WKU scored the matches final four points to sweep the Panthers and maintain their perfect conference record on the year.

Freshmen Haley Bodway led the Lady Toppers with eight kills on 15 attempts. Setter Melanie Stutsman put up 31 assists while also knocking down four kills.

WKU continues volleyball action Saturday as it hosts Florida Atlantic at 2 p.m. in Diddle Arena.