KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Western Kentucky’s volleyball team came out striking the ball with ruthless efficiency against Coastal Carolina in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round matchup at the University of Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena.

Paced by senior outside hitter Paige Briggs’ 18 kills for a dazzling .531 hitting percentage, the Hilltoppers rolled to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-23) win over the Chanticleers to advance to Saturday’s second round of the NCAA Tournament.

WKU (30-4) will face host Tennessee, which swept High Point in three sets following the Hilltoppers’ win.

“I actually do like the quick turnaround,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said of facing the Vols on Saturday. “I always talk to my team about how the harder it gets, the better I like our chances. I think it’s uncomfortable for teams to have to play in that short turnaround, but it’s something that we do throughout the year. We did it all through conference play, we did it in those nonconference tournaments. So I think it’s something our team will be ready for.”

The Hilltoppers throttled the Sun Belt Conference champion Chanticleers in the opening set, using a six-point run to stretch a one-point led to 12-7 after Logan Grevengoed’s block. Senior Cameron Mosley, a longtime reserve who came up with a huge service run of back-to-back aces in the Tops’ Conference USA Tournament championship on Nov. 19 against New Mexico State, again played a pivotal role in a crucial stretch as she delivered back-to-back aces and three overall during that six-point run.

“Cam is great — Cam is a leader on our team and it’s the perfect story to the end of her college career,” Briggs said. “She deserves what she’s done. She’s worked so hard and she’s a great captain on our team, a great player and a great teammate.”

That boost from the service line, combined with the dominating play of Briggs and Kaylee Cox helped the Tops cruise to that opening-set win.

Hudson wasn’t fooled, and he stressed to his team after the first set that they had not seen the best the Chanticleers could offer. 

“Both teams hit high clips tonight,” Hudson said. “Our experience in the tournament helped early, but I told our team after the first set that that is not who you are going to see the rest of the match. We knew it was going to be much more of a struggle and have great respect for their program and what they’ve done this year.”

Sure enough, the Chants locked in and starting match the Tops shot-for-shot in the second set. Coastal Carolina led 18-16 before consecutive kills by Cox and Briggs followed by Grevengoed’s block flipped the lead to WKU. Then with the set tied at 20-all, Briggs delivered a trio of kills as the Tops closed out the win with five straight points.

Briggs and Cox, who combined 35 of the Tops’ 65 total kills, helped WKU finish with a season-best 47.8 hitting percentage in a three-set match.

“These two are All-Americans and they’ve proved it all year long,” Hudson said of Briggs and Cox. “They’re both hitting well over .300 on the pin and the number of outsides that have taken close to a 1,000 swings this year that are hitting over .300 you could probably count on two hands and I have one on each side.

“We’re really blessed. They both were really, really good — carried a big load. We certainly can get offense from other places, but we also don’t want to reinvent the wheel and when these two are going like they’re going we just kind of stood back and let them do what they do.”

Neither team could break away in the third set, but the Chants led 23-21 after back-to-back kills by Jalyn Stout that forced Hudson to use a time out.

That break seemed to settle the Tops, while Coastal consecutive hitting errors, then Cox and Izzy Van De Wiele combined for a block that brought up match point.

Briggs finished it off with one last kill.

Now the No. 21-ranked Hilltoppers, a six-seed in the NCAA field, get a shot at third-seeded Tennessee. Last year, WKU swept the Vols 3-0 on their home court in a regular-season matchup.

“I think tomorrow we’ll be a better version of ourselves,” Hudson said. “Now that doesn’t mean we’re going to win tomorrow, but I think we’ll be a better version of ourself from a defensive standpoint.”