Brianne Boner had watched enough on Saturday night at White Auditorium.
After No. 11 Emporia State took a 2-0 lead and appeared on its way a sixth straight sweep, No. 13 Pittsburg State won two straight sets and had a 10-7 lead in the final set. The Gorillas were five points away from giving the Hornets their first loss in the MIAA, and the ESU players on the court looked shocked.
“At that point I was out and I was sitting there watching the game and I was like, ‘I’m tired of this. I’m done losing; when I get in there, I’m just ready to play. I want to win,’” Boner said.
Boner entered the game and pulled the Hornets to within one point at 10-11 with a kill. She pulled the Hornets even at 12-all with another kill. As Boner turned around, her teammates let out a collective scream and their looks of shock had turned to smiles.
“That was it,” Boner said. “You could just tell in all of our faces we were ready to win.”
On the next point, Boner teamed with Megan Koster on a block to give ESU the go-ahead point. After a Koster kill and a Ting Liu block, the Hornets had pulled off the 15-12 come-from-behind victory by scoring seven of the final eight points to win their 18th straight match.
“I think this team showed a lot of character,” ESU coach Bing Xu said. “You can keep building momentum and finding momentum no matter how many points we’re down.”
Emporia State cruised in the first two games and Pitt State did not appear ready for a team of ESU’s caliber. The Gorillas had won eight straight and were 4-2 in the in the MIAA, both losses coming to No. 14 Central Missouri, a team Emporia State beat 3-1 at home last month.
The Gorillas struggled at the net in the first two sets. They had a .000 hitting percentage after the first set and .089 after the second. The Hornets won the first set 25-13 and Arica Shepard carried her team to a second-set 25-21 win with eight kills.
“I think we might have had them a little bit scared in the beginning,” Boner said. “They seemed like they didn’t play their game in the first two. The third and fourth game you could tell there was a definite change in them. It almost shifted. They kind of took our fire and we kind of sunk back on our heels a little bit.”
Pitt State led the third set from start to finish, winning 25-20. The Gorillas changed hitting schemes before the third set and fooled the Hornets on several points by lobbing attacks over the ESU blockers.
“I think we just relaxed a little bit,” Shepard said. “We figured, ‘oh, we have this wrapped up. We don’t really need to go as hard.’ We just let up and they came back and they got the momentum going in the fourth game for them, and you just can’t do that.”
After Pitt State tied the fourth set at seven, ESU trailed the rest of the set and the Hornets became the team that started to doubt itself.
“Sometimes you put it on cruise control and quick lesson learned tonight, you can’t do that,” Boner said. “You play a good team and you’ve got to make sure you’re all there.”
The Gorillas carried their momentum into the final set and Emporia State did not hold the lead until Boner and Koster’s block made it 13-12. Boner provided the spark off the bench with her enthusiasm.
“In the fifth game, she’s the first one that brought everybody up,” Xu said. “She jumped around every time we made a point and that’s the play we need. All the others need to follow. They need to do the same thing. You can’t wear down.”
While Boner brought the inspiration, Shepard brought the intensity for the Hornets. She had a career-high 26 kills, including four in the final set. From the start, Shepard’s hits seemed to have even more speed than usual and she was consistent throughout the match.
“Sometimes I get a little bit more intense for games,” Shepard said. “I usually go out there, have fun and smile, but that game I really was kind of mad, because I knew we could play better than what we were doing. And I wasn’t really mad at our team, I was just mad at them — the other side for playing better. I think that’s what did it. I just kind of used that against them.”
Shepard also benefited from Liu, who had a career-high 66 assists.
“Her setting was pretty incredible today,” Shepard said. “She saved a lot of balls that most setters probably couldn’t even touch and she’s really good when we’re under pressure. She never bends.”
The Hornets may have bent for the first time, but they’ve yet to break in the MIAA. They improved to 7-0 in the conference — the lone undefeated team — and to 21-1 overall with the 3-2 victory. They play again today at White Auditorium at 7 p.m. against Missouri Southern in the final game of a three-game homestand.
One for the
record books
F Arica Shepard had a career-high 26 kills.
F Ting Liu had a career-high 66 assists.
F Emporia State had not played a five-set match since Nov. 2, 2007 at Truman.
F The Hornets extended their winning streak to a 18 games. They have won 11 straight at home, including five straight against ranked opponents.
eatasheep69 (anonymous) says...
WOW! That game was intense! Great job, Hornets!
October 12, 2008 at 9:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )