Western Kentucky drew a crowd for Tuesday night’s home opener against No. 16 Tennessee at E.A. Diddle Arena.

And make no mistake, the Hilltoppers put on a show. In a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament second-round matchup won in straight sets by the Volunteers on their home court in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Tops pushed the SEC program to the max before succumbing in the fifth set in a 3-2 (25-22, 15-25, 25-12, 23-25, 15-11) loss in front of the seventh largest crowd – 2,604 – to see a WKU home volleyball match.

“Obviously a hard-fought match and a huge thank you to our crowd, what a great atmosphere for college volleyball,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “Again, we haven’t been a very good version of ourselves this early in the year, but tonight we were. Tonight, I think we showed anyone who watched that we’re still a team to be reckoned with and one of the better teams in the country. That is a very good Tennessee team that I thought played at a very high level and I thought we matched it. When you get into a fifth set, it truly is a bounce here or there. Always is in a fifth set, and tonight it just wasn’t our turn.”

WKU (4-3) had a much better showing against the Volunteers than the last time they met back in December in the NCAA Tournament, when the hosts took the win in straights.

Tennessee (3-2) came out strong, tallying a .308 hitting percentage in the first-set win and showcasing a strong middle block along with outstanding hitting by Nina Cajic (team-high 17 kills).

The Hilltoppers responded in a big way in the second set, rocking the Vols with their own strong blocking on the front line anchored by sophomore middle hitter Izzy Van De Wiele and some timely kills from senior outside hitter Kaylee Cox (match-high 18 kills) and freshman outside hitter Alivia Skidmore (seven kills). A Tennessee attack error handed the final point to WKU in a 25-15 win.

The Vols rattled WKU right back in the third set, holding the Hilltoppers to a match-low hitting percentage while piling up 10 blocks in a decisive 25-12 win.

It seemed decisive, anyway – but the Tops regrouped again in the fourth set.

“We talked about it before the match – I looked at them in the locker room and I was like, ‘Guys, these kind of matches aren’t 3-0 unless we didn’t play very well.’ If we play well, it’s going to be long,” Hudson said. “This is one of the longer ones that I can remember in awhile, but you just know it’s punch, counterpunch. It’s they adjust, we adjust back and that’s the value of being in big matches like that because in our sport there’s certain games that get away from you and you can’t let that effect the next game.”

The Tops pushed ahead from an 11-all tie on a productive three-point service run by redshirt junior setter Callie Bauer that featured back-to-back kills from freshman outside hitter Faith Young. The Vols closed the gap that had stretched to five on ace by WKU senior outside hitter Katie Howard back to within one on several occasions – the last at 24-23 on an Emily Beeker kill – before WKU senior right side hitter Kennadee Coyle (nine kills) closed out the set win with a kill.

Young, who finished the match with eight kills, said battling the Volunteers to five sets was a confidence boost.

“I would say the most important thing is just knowing that my teammates have my back,” Young said. “They’re there to pick me up when I made an error or something like that. It just really helps me play more free and just play good.”

On to the fifth set, the Hilltoppers fell behind by four points by the mid-point change over. But a kill and then a service ace by Cox got her team back within a point at 12-11 before the Vols used a trio of kills to close out the win.

“I’m really crazy proud of our team,” Hudson said. “That’s a legit Tennessee team right there. Our team’s just got to keep pounding, keep pounding the rock until it breaks because we’re going to see more teams like this over the next few matches and we’ve just got to keep putting ourselves in that position. We stood toe-to-toe and we played great.”

Paityn Chapman (15 kills) and Keondreya Grandberry (11 kills, 10 blocks) also finished with double-digit kills for Tennessee, while Vols setter Caroline Kerr (50 assists) drew high praise from Hudson.

“Tennessee has got a lot of special players, but the one that really elevates Tennessee is their setter,” Hudson said. “She is a very, very special talent. You work really hard in this game just to disrupt them and get them out of the flow of what they want to do and she does an incredible job of putting them right back in the flow of what they want to do.”

The Hilltoppers stay at home through the weekend for the Hyatt Place Invitational with a pair of matches Friday against Marquette – which is receiving votes in the latest AVCA rankings, just like WKU – and No. 24 Dayton before closing out play with a Saturday matchup against Illinois.

Hudson hopes the sizeable crowd he saw Tuesday night is back for the weekend, if not even larger.

“What do you need to see before you become a WKU volleyball fan?,” Hudson said. “We’re playing at a top-25 level, our kids pour their guts out every single night. When people come, they have a blast. It’s time for the community to make an even bigger commitment to this program. Not for me – I’m one foot out the door, 30 years in. Not for me, but for these kids that continue to be about everything that’s right about college athletics in a day and age when everything’s wrong in college athletics.

“I just want them to feel that kind of support every night because these kids care a lot about playing at Western Kentucky and they fight. And they know that the deck is stacked against us in college athletics right now, but the things that they hold true to their hearts and our program holds true to its heart is something that people should be here to witness and support these 12 young women.”