Before the volleyball season started, Emporia State outside hitter Arica Shepard said in the Gazette, “I know we can beat Washburn.”
The day the paper came out, Shepard heard from her twin sister, Ashley Shepard, an outsider hitter for Washburn.
“Oh, you think you’re going to beat us?” Ashley asked. “Thanks for the motivation.”
The day has finally arrived. Tonight No. 10 Emporia State travels to No. 9 Washburn for a battle of the two highest ranked teams in the MIAA and a battle of the sisters.
For Ashley, she’s been waiting to get revenge for two years after sitting out last season because of a knee injury. The two teams split their matches the twins freshman year and split again last year, but Arica’s Hornets won the final meeting in 2006, the last time the sisters squared off.
“When we were losing to them especially is when I wanted to be out there,” Ashley said, “because she was playing really well and I wanted to be out there to stop her.”
Ashley has had to settle for the twin’s other competitions, such as grades or who has the better looking boyfriend. Ashley says if they’re walking next each other, it’s even a competition of who’s walking faster.
“Every little thing that we do is a competition, especially when we were younger,” Ashley said. “We’re always trying to one up each other. And these last few years it’s all boiled up to when we play each other.”
For Arica, she’d had enough after high school. They dominated the high school ranks together, taking Rossville High to two third-place finishes in the state tournament. They both had the option to be teammates in college, but Ashley had always wanted to play for Washburn and wanted to be close to home. And Arica was ready to get away.
“I did want to go off on my own and be my own self,” she said. “I was tired of being the twins. ... We didn’t get along so much in high school, and I think part of the reason was we were too competitive with each other. But now that we have been away from each other for a couple years, it’s helped our relationship a lot. We’re a lot closer. We can actually hang out without killing each other.”
Now they just compare kills. Such as last week, the two teams both played Pittsburg State on consecutive nights. Arica had a career-high 26 kills on Friday. Ashley led her team the next night against Pitt State, but had only 18.
Arica is winning the statistical battle this season with 295 kills compared to Ashley’s 198. Arica’s Hornets also have the advantage in the MIAA. The Hornets have yet to drop a game this season in the conference, while the Ichabods have lost two, but the Ichabods are the lone team near the top of the standings the Hornets have yet to play.
“They have a target on their back right now with everybody in the MIAA,” Ashley said.
And that target is getting bigger and brighter. Apparently Arica hasn’t learned lesson from the beginning of the season when she offered up bulletin-board material. On Monday, the Hornets had the day off and Arica went home to visit her parents in Rossville. On the way back to Emporia, she stopped by Topeka to see her sister and she just couldn’t help it.
Before she left, she asked Ashley, “So are you ready to get your butt beat on Friday?”