BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - In the semifinals of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Tournament, the Lady Toppers lost a heartbreaker to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders falling in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 15-25, 24-16). With the loss, the Lady Toppers finish the season with a 25-9 overall record while Middle Tennessee improves to 24-8.

In the first set, the Blue Raiders picked up an early lead before the Lady Toppers were able to rally back to within one point at 15-14. After cutting Middle Tennessee's lead to one, the Blue Raiders scored the next two points to go ahead 17-14. Down three, WKU tried to complete the comeback but came up just short falling in the first set after Middle Tennessee's Janay Yancey recorded a kill on the final play. The Lady Toppers recorded nine kills but committed six errors to finish with a .100 hitting percentage.

WKU evened the score in the second set after bouncing back from the opening set loss. After recording 14 kills and finishing with a .303 hitting percentage, the Lady Toppers wouldn't go down without a fight scoring the last two points of the set to pick up the victory. After going ahead 2-0 following a kill by sophomore Lauren Stuckel and an attack error by Middle Tennessee, the Lady Toppers jumped out to a 9-3 lead after senior Lindsdey Gould recorded four consecutive aces. In the set, the Lady Toppers recorded their best hitting percentage of the night, a .303 percentage after posting 14 kills.

Middle Tennessee blew past the Lady Toppers in the third set jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Up 8-5, the Blue Raiders scored seven consecutive points to extend their lead to ten. After holding on to their lead, the Blue Raiders won the set after a kill by Izabela Kozon.

In the final set of the night, the Lady Toppers got on the board first scoring the set's first point off a kill by senior Brittany Bowen. After the blue Raiders regained the lead, WKU took the lead at 9-8 off an attack error by the the Blue Raiders. WKU then held on to the lead until Middle Tennessee tied things up at 22 after a kill by Stacy Oladinni. With everything tied at 22, Middle Tennessee took the lead after an error by the Lady Toppers and managed to hold off a late rally by the Lady Toppers and won the set after another attack error by WKU. On offense, the Lady Toppers posted a .088 hitting percentage after committing nine errors and posting 12 kills.

In the match, WKU finished with a .190 hitting percentage after recording 46 kills, 41 assists, six aces, 47 digs and 15 blocks. Middle Tennessee finished the night with a .267 hitting percentage, 54 kills, 51 assists, seven aces, 40 digs and 16 blocks. The Lady Toppers were led by sophomore Tiffany Elmore on offense. She finished the match with a team-high .318 hitting percentage and ten kills. Sophomore Lauren Stuckel led the team in assists with 30 and freshman Sarah Rogers finished with a match-high 18 digs. Elmore also had a good night at the net finishing with six blocks.

Middle Tennessee will now go on to face FIU in the 2009 Sun Belt Conference championship match at 3 p.m. tomorrow. The winner of the match will receive the league's at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.