WKU volleyball starts season with 3-0 win over Sacramento State

Lucas Aulbach

The WKU women’s volleyball team started the season off on a high note at the Belmont Invitational in Nashville this afternoon with a 3-0 win over Sacramento State.

The Lady Toppers were able to take every set played with scores of 25-13, 25-21 and 25-21, respectively, although Head Coach Travis Hudson said he still saw room for improvement.

“It was a pretty ugly effort overall as you would expect this early in the season,” Hudson said. “But we did enough things well to really be in control of the match throughout.”

Senior middle hitter Tiffany Elmore led the team offensively with 17 kills, while sophomore setter Melanie Stutsman – a returning All-American – recorded a team-high 36 assists.

Junior outside hitter Jordyn Skinner and sophomore defensive specialist Ashley Potts combined for a total of 43 digs over the course of the three sets. Skinner had 22 digs while Potts had 21 – a career-high for both of them.

It was the first win of the 2011 season for the Lady Toppers, who return 10 starters from last year.

WKU finished 27-9 and made the NCAA Tournament in 2010.

The win brought head coach Travis Hudson’s opening game record to 11-6 in his 17 years with the program.

The Lady Toppers will be in action in Nashville again tomorrow with a match against Belmont at 12:30 p.m. and Murray State at 3:30 p.m.

Hudson said it will take a much different approach to win on Saturday.

“I think the real challenge tomorrow is that Belmont and Murray State are both going to be very different opponents than the one we faced today,” Hudson said. “Tomorrow, we are playing two teams that are smaller, but very good defensively – very quick, very athletic with very fast offenses and those will certainly present challenges for us.”