Topeka — After Washburn’s 3-0 sweep on Friday night at Lee Arena, the Emporia State volleyball players sat outside the gym and didn’t really know what to say.
So their coaches told them what they had to have been thinking: “That wasn’t you out there.”
The Lady Blues certainly didn’t see the Hornets that had won 19 straight, had a perfect 8-0 record in the MIAA, were ranked 10th in the country and opened this week at No. 1 in the first regional poll. Washburn rolled to an easy 25-15, 25-15, 25-21 win, the first time ESU has been swept since losing to West Florida on Sept. 7 of last season.
“We couldn’t do anything right,” Arica Shepard said. “Couldn’t pass, couldn’t hit, couldn’t serve. That’s the worst I’ve ever seen us play.”
Emporia State struggled from the opening point, a Washburn block of Shepard’s spike attempt. The Hornets had an unusually low .071 hitting percentage and had 23 hitting errors.
This was the first time the Hornets have played a road game against a ranked opponent this season. The Hornets had three wins at home against ranked opponents and one at a neutral site.
Washburn’s crowd of 1,095 was vocal and abrasive, taunting the Hornets throughout the game.
“I think they kind of got into our heads a little bit,” Megan Koster said. “You hear things and sometimes it’s kind of hard to let it go in one ear and out the other. I think some of us were kind of like, ‘Oh, we really are sucking.’”
The Hornets made errors that they don’t usually make and seemed shaken in the first two games, but they started to resemble themselves halfway through the third game. Trailing 17-11 at one point in the third set, Emporia State rallied to pull to within 22-21 of Washburn.
For a moment, the two teams were tied 22-all on the scoreboard, and it appeared the Hornets might at least force a fourth game. But then the referee ruled that a Washburn hit that went out of bounds had been deflected, and the Hornets did not score another point.
“We were doing everything we were suppposed to be doing,” Shepard said. “It was mental. It was all mental. We were letting fans get in our head. We were letting playing Washburn get in our head. You can’t do that against somebody this good, because they’re just going to take advantage of it and they did.”
Despite the loss, the Hornets still remain in first place at 8-1 ahead of Central Missouri (8-2) and Washburn (7-2). The Hornets will have played every team in the conference after today’s match at Fort Hays State and begin the second-half of their MIAA schedule on Wednesday at No. 12 Truman.
“It’s a different game now,” ESU coach Bing Xu said. “We need to regroup and focus on the second half of the conference and look ahead only one game at a time. Don’t worry about the past, don’t worry about too far in front of you, just focus on the right now.”