WKU volleyball notches second Florida sweep

Emily Patton

The Lady Toppers proved this weekend that if they can do it once, they could do it again.

WKU (19-5, 8-1 Sun Belt Conference) knocked off Florida Atlantic and defending Sun Belt champion Florida International for the second time this season.

This time they did it on the road.

The Lady Toppers have now won 11 of their last 12 matches, including four straight conference games.

FIU (10-9, 4-3 Sun Belt Conference) forced the Lady Toppers to win in five-sets 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 25-20, 25-27, 15-13) at U.S. Century Bank Arena on Saturday.

Junior middle hitter Tiffany Elmore led the WKU offense with a season-high 18 kills and a .421 hitting percentage while on the defensive side, sophomore Jordyn Skinner had 17 digs.

“Both teams played really well and we were fortunate enough to be the ones left standing,” Head Coach Travis Hudson said. “It was truly a team effort. It wasn’t always extremely well-executed, but we fought and we ended up finding a way at the end.”

It was a performance that Hudson said was an improvement over the team’s win against FAU the night before.

WKU won 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-19) over the Owls (10-12, 1-5 Sun Belt) at FAU Arena with a last set that Hudson said was played “sloppy.”

The Lady Toppers played from behind the majority of the third set that featured nine ties and six lead changes.

Elmore and Skinner both had leading nights again, with Elmore earning 13 kills and a .600 hitting percentage for the offense and Skinner finishing with 11 digs.

WKU will host No. 21 Cincinnati at Diddle Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“Hopefully this week we can get back to the gym and play much cleaner, better-executed volleyball,” Hudson said. “It really came down to playing with a lot of guts and toughness.”