Doing Things Right
Shepard's 21 kills helps ESU to sweep over Fort Hays
By Jesse Newell
Friday, October 26, 2007
Arica Shepard says part of her success this season has come from Emporia State coach Bing Xu constantly fixing her swing.
So what’s gone wrong for the ESU sophomore?
“Anything you can imagine,” Shepard said with a smile. “Some games it would be I was running under the ball, or the next game it would be I wasn’t snapping on it.
“Little things that can just mess the whole thing up.”
Shepard seemed to have her motion pretty well figured out Thursday, as her 21 kills helped lead the No. 19 Hornets to a 30-18, 30-15, 30-19 victory over Fort Hays State at White Auditorium.
The 5-foot-9 outside hitter now has posted at least 20 kills in five of her last six matches.
After a slow start, ESU (23-6, 9-2 MIAA) was dominant.
The Hornets used a 9-1 run midway through the first game to turn a 14-12 lead into a 23-13 advantage.
In the 30-18 Game One win, Shepard had nine kills and a .643 attack percentage.
As a team, the Hornets hit .486.
ESU was even better at the start of Game Two. The Hornets reeled off nine straight points — led by a pair of kills by Mary Walczuk — to take a 9-0 lead and force an FHSU timeout.
“There’s nothing else like that — looking up at the scoreboard, and they have nothing,” ESU junior Hannah Carter said. “We’re just going hard and putting things away and getting things done. That’s how it should be.”
The Tigers (15-15, 2-9 MIAA) trimmed the ESU lead to 20-17 in the third game, but the Hornets scored 10 of the final 12 points to finish off the match.
Shepard finished with 12 digs and a .576 attack percentage.
The victory clinched home-court advantage for the Hornets in the first round of the MIAA Tournament.
The Hornets will face No. 5 Washburn (29-1) on Tuesday at White Auditorium. ESU lost the two teams’ first matchup, 3-2.
“We definitely want to beat them this time,” Shepard said. “We felt like we they gave us so many chances to beat them, and we just didn’t do it.
“We know what to expect this time, and we all really want it bad.”
Thursday at White Auditorium
Fort Hays State 18 15 19
No. 19 ESU 30 30 30
Records — FHSU (15-15, 2-9 MIAA); ESU (23-6, 9-2 MIAA).