Western Kentucky got off to a slow start Friday night at its pre-Hilltopper Hysteria match, then recovered and rolled to another Conference USA victory.

The 25th-ranked Lady Toppers took down visiting C-USA squad UAB 3-1 (20-25, 25-19, 25-12, 25-20) in a match that served as a lead-in for the night’s basketball events at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (19-2 overall, 6-0 Conference USA) has won 10 straight matches and is now 19-0 at home all-time in C-USA matches. The Lady Toppers have taken 41 consecutive home conference matches since 2011, when they were a Sun Belt Conference member.

WKU wasn’t executing early on to coach Travis Hudson’s liking, but eventually took control.

“We just didn’t play well in the first set and that’s about as calm as you’ll ever see me when we’re playing like that because at no point was UAB really doing things that were hurting us as much as we were just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot,” Hudson said. “We just had to settle down and right the ship and when we did that we started to play much better.”

After losing the first set by five points, WKU pulled ahead 17-12 in the second before the Blazers cut the Lady Topper lead to 20-19.

WKU scored five of the set’s final six points, the last coming on a Rachel Anderson kill off a Jessica Lucas assist, to even the match.

The Lady Toppers dominated the third set, then clinched the 3-1 victory in the fourth set on an Alyssa Cavanaugh kill off a Lucas assist.

“Volleyball’s such a funny game,” Hudson said. “It’s a game of emotion and we just couldn’t get out of our own way for a little while. Once we did, we played pretty good volleyball.”

The junior Cavanaugh tallied a match-high 17 assists, while the sophomore Anderson pitched in with 16 kills and three blocks. The junior Lucas collected 47 assists and eight digs, while Sydney Engle recorded nine digs and eight kills.

The Lady Toppers will be back in action at noon Sunday against FIU (7-13, 1-5). WKU leads its all-time series against the Panthers 32-8.

“We’re kind of at that point where (the season) is getting long and we’ve done the same thing over and over,” Hudson said. “We’ll soon come out of that and really be in the stretch run. Our kids keep finding a way to win and that’s the important part.”

— Follow sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.