The MIAA volleyball coaches might want to reconvene and submit a new preseason volleyball poll.
In the original, they had Emporia State fifth.
“In the beginning of season, that’s motivation,” coach Bing Xu said. “We know we’re better than that.”
So does the MIAA now. After four matches, the Hornets are the lone undefeated team in the league after giving Central Missouri its first loss, 3-1, on Wednesday at White Auditorium.
The Jennies took advantage of sloppy play from the Hornets in the first game and built a 20-15 lead. The Hornets came back to tie the game at 23 and then 24, but the Jennies won 27-25.
“First game we always tend to just psych ourselves out, sometimes we’ll think they’re better than they are,” Brianne Boner said. “We’re both really good ranked teams and it was going to be a tough match and we knew that. We just sometimes think it’s going to be tougher than it is.”
The late comeback in Game 1 gave the Hornets momentum going into Game 2.
“We know that we’re that much closer and we know that if we hadn’t made stupid errors then we would have had them,” Megan Koster said.
Boner, who struggled last weekend, had six kills in the second set to lead the Hornets to an easy 25-16 win to tie the match.
The Jennies made it interesting in Game 3 and led 19-16 before the Hornets scored three straight points to tie the game. After taking a 20-19 lead, the Hornets tied the game on a Arica Shepard kill and never trailed again, winning 25-23 on a Brittney Miller kill.
The loss in the third set left the Jennies deflated, and the Hornets finished them off with an easy 25-18 win in the fourth game to win their 11th straight match and improve to 14-1.
The Hornets have now beaten the two teams they were unable to beat last year in the MIAA. Last Wednesday, they beat Truman after losing three straight weekends to the Bulldogs last year to end the season. The Jennies gave the Hornets their only home loss last year.
It was only the Hornets’ third victory all time in 43 matches against the Jennies. Peggy Martin has been the Jennies coach for many of those ESU losses. Martin will retire at the end of this season and was coaching her final game at White Auditorium.
“I feel bad,” Boner said. “It’s OK, she’ll get it over it.”
Martin might have a tough time erasing the memory of the ESU hitters. The Hornets had four players with more than 10 kills. Shepard led the Hornets with 14 kills and 11 digs. Boner had 11 kills and a team-high seven blocks. Koster had 11 kills and a team-high 16 digs, and Brittney Miller added 12 kills. Ting Liu once again led the Hornets in assists with 45 and had 11 digs.
In four matches, ESU has dropped only three sets in the MIAA and has wins over two ranked opponents. Truman is ranked 11th, one spot ahead of ESU, and the Jennies are ranked 15th. Both teams were ahead of the Hornets in the preseason rankings.
“This is what we wanted,” Boner said. “We came in and people didn’t think we were as good as we thought we were, and we’re in it to prove it. We hope to continue that the rest of the year.”
UsayULoveGod (anonymous) says...
Way to go Hornets
September 25, 2008 at 10:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporialifer (anonymous) says...
Congratulations Lady Hornets! Great job!
September 26, 2008 at 7:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )