The Lady Toppers volleyball team was unable to break

their losing streak against Cincinnati on Tuesday night, but they

gave them the closest match the two teams have had in years.

WKU lost a five-set thriller 3-2 in Cincinnati, in a

back-and-forth match that saw several momentum shifts and no

consecutive set wins.

While the Lady Toppers excelled in many areas of the

game, serving was their Achilles heel.

WKU (21-3, 8-1 Sun Belt Conference) had a higher

hitting percentage and recorded more blocks than Cincinnati but

also had 23 serving errors over the course of the match, as opposed

to 12 committed by the Lady Bearcats.

Head Coach Travis Hudson was disheartened after the

match.

“Obviously I’m disappointed,” he said. “We outplayed

them in almost every aspect but we failed at service aces and it

killed us.”

Junior outside hitter Jordyn Skinner led the Lady

Toppers with 15 kills, while senior middle hitter Tiffany Elmore

added 14 to the teams total of 54.

Sophomore setter Melanie Stutsman recorded 43 assists

to go along with her seven kills.

Sophomore defensive specialist Ashley Potts led the

defense with 21 digs, a third of WKUs total of 62. Skinner recorded

an additional 15 in her 12th double-double

of the season.

Elmore said the team played well in some areas and

agreed with Hudson that serving errors were the deciding factor in

the loss.

“We defended well and outblocked them, but serving

drilled us tonight,” she said. “We let our serving game get away

from us and it caused us a loss.”

While they didn’t snap their decade-long losing

streak against the Lady Bearcats, the Lady Toppers were close to

the final set, which ended with Cincinnati on top 16-14.

WKU will try to get back on track after the loss this

weekend. The Lady Toppers will leave Bowling Green on Thursday to

travel to Louisiana for weekend matches against Louisiana-Lafayette

and Louisiana-Monroe.