WKU Volleyball: Lady Tops swept in season opener against Alabama

In her senior season debut, Rachel Anderson led WKU Volleyball with a 14-kill, five-block effort as the Red and White dropped a tight match to Alabama, 3-0. Twelve Lady Toppers saw action in the contest that saw all three sets decided by the two-point minimum – 25-23, 28-26, 25-23.

“The difference in today’s match was experience versus inexperience,” head coach Travis Hudson said following the match. “Our kids played very hard, we just didn’t make plays at the end of the sets.”

The last time WKU lost a season-opener was the 2012 season as Hudson is now 16-8 in the first match of a season on The Hill. Five of those setbacks have been to Power Five squads.

WKU opened the 2018 season by claiming the first point against the Crimson Tide but Alabama went on to hold off the Lady Toppers’ late comeback efforts to win the set 25-23. Trailing 24-19 at one point, the Red and White fended off four set points to pull back into the set.

After back-and-forth play for much of the next frame, WKU put together a 5-1 run to open up an 18-16 lead in the second set. The Lady Toppers had set point on three occasions, but the Crimson Tide recorded the set’s final three tallies to take a 2-0 advantage in the contest.

Action in the third set opened with Alabama in the lead before WKU worked ahead to a 16-12 lead. Out of a Crimson Tide timeout, Alabama fought back with a 5-0 run but the Lady Toppers were able to hit 20 first with a two-point lead. The Red and White owned a lead as late as the 23-22 mark as Anderson rotated out of the front row while Alabama registered the match’s final three points.

Anderson finished with a team-best 14 kills in her senior season opener. The Sturgis, Mich., native worked at a .344 offensive clip while adding five blocks and four digs on the day. Sophia Cerino added a career-high eight kills along with three blocks.

Leading the defensive effort, Emma Kowalkowski notched 14 digs in the loss while Payton Frederick added 13 in her collegiate debut.

Taylor Bebout facilitated the Lady Topper offense with 30 assists while adding two digs, two blocks, an ace and a kill.