Emporia State volleyball coach Bing Xu didn’t call a timeout on Tuesday night at White Auditorium in a 3-0 victory over Southwest Baptist, and Xu’s speech at intermission was less than a minute long.
There’s really not much Xu can say to the No. 11 Hornets. They’ve won 17 straight. They are 20-1 and 6-0 in the MIAA. They haven’t dropped a set in their last five matches, and in six MIAA matches, they’ve dropped only four sets — never more than one in a match.
“I think he knows no matter what he says, it’s all up to us on the court to do what we need to do,” outside hitter Arica Shepard said. “He’s not really worried right now. I think he’s pretty confident in us.”
Emporia State did nothing to deter Xu’s confidence against Southwest Baptist. The Bearcats entered the game with a .500 record and were 1-4 in the MIAA. The Hornets took care of business from the start, winning 25-14 in the first set and coasting to 25-16 and 25-17 wins in the final two games to get the sweep.
While Southwest Baptist coach Kelly Richardson used all of her timeouts, Xu rarely said a word to his team throughout the match.
“The more they play, the more they learn, they can pick up something themselves,” Xu said. “It’s better than the coach constantly telling them. I think right now they register a lot of things.”
Xu’s challenge to his players before the game was to maintain their level of play and not play down to Southwest Baptist. The Hornets did that for the most part, only trailing one time all night — 8-7 in the first set. The Hornets responded to the Bearcats’ taking the lead by scoring five straight points.
“I think of all the obstacles we’ve had this year, it’s playing at our level and playing consistently no matter who we’re playing,” libero Amy Byfield said. “But I think that game shows we’ve gotten better at that and working at that at practice and finding that rhythm. We’ve done a pretty good job.”
The Hornets had more size and strength than the Bearcats and they overpowered them with 45 kills, compared to 29 for SBU. Brittney Miller led ESU with 10 kills, Shepard and Hannah Carter both had eight and Megan Koster had seven. Amy Byfield had a game-high 16 digs and Ting Liu had a game-high 37 assists.
The Hornets do not seemed to feel the pressure of being the lone undefeated team in the conference, and their 17-game winning streak only seems to give them more confidence.
“This year I think everybody just goes out to play and no one thinks about the numbers right before the game,” Byfield said. “It just happens and we click and do what we need to do. ... I think initially when we started out ranked, it was kind of in our heads, but as we’ve played and got familiar with each other, we really don’t think about it at all. It’s not about numbers, it’s not about stats; we just like to win.”
The Hornets will get a test in their next match on Friday when Pittsburg State visits White Auditorium. The 13th-ranked Gorillas have won seven straight and their only two losses in the MIAA both came to Central Missouri.
“Right now they’re pretty hot, but I mention to our players that we’re hot too,” Xu said. “It will be a battle. They have a lot of weapons, they have a lot of height, but it’s just a matter of how we perform.”