Western Kentucky has been hot at home all season, and that didn’t change Thursday.

The No. 19 nationally ranked Lady Toppers, hosting the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Tournament at E.A. Diddle Arena, improved their home record to 16-0 and extended their match winning streak to 28 games with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-23) sweep of Kennesaw State in front of a volleyball record crowd of 4,514.

WKU – now 32-1 overall on the year – will meet Louisville at 7 p.m. Friday in a second-round tilt. The Lady Toppers’ lone loss in 2019 came against the Cardinals back on Sept. 6, a 3-1 setback in Louisville.

The two sides played a competitive, back-and-forth opening set.

WKU started fast and jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Kennesaw State quickly regrouped and got within 11-7. The Lady Toppers took a 15-11 lead before the Owls rallied to tie things at 20-20. Western went up 22-20 and forced KSU to call timeout, but it took the Owls no time to even the scoreboard.

A Paige Briggs kill – followed by an attack error – gave WKU a 24-22 advantage, and a closing error on Kennesaw State helped the Lady Tops take a 1-0 lead in the match.

KSU opened the second set with a 5-2 edge, but WKU used a 4-1 run to tie it. However, the Owls – helped by a pair of aces from Jessie Cohen – re-took a lead of 10-6 and forced the Lady Toppers to call timeout.

WKU rallied back to even things at 12-12, and Sophia Cerino’s ace put it up 16-14 and forced a KSU timeout. Back-to-back kills by Briggs put WKU up 20-19, and the Lady Tops ultimately took the set 25-20 to extend their match lead to 2-0.

Western opened Set 3 with a 11-7 lead and later held a 19-16 advantage. The Lady Toppers soon went up 21-20 and ultimately took the set 25-23 to claim the match and move on to the next round.