Ida Edwards wants to cut the nets down Saturday on senior day at White Auditorium in celebration of Emporia State’s MIAA regular season title.
Even though the Lady Hornets could win the title outright tonight with a win over Washburn, Edwards wants to leave the net-cutting ceremony for senior night against Fort Hays State.
“I think we deserve it,” Edwards said. “I think we’ve worked hard all year to not only just be in first place at the end of MIAA, but just to stay in this spot. We’ve dropped a couple, but we’ve done a good job of recovering and not losing two in a row. Hopefully, we can get both of these games, because when we cut down those nets, it’s going to feel pretty good.”
Don’t read too much into Edwards’ preference on when she wants to celebrate, Emporia State would love nothing more to clinch the title on Washburn’s home floor. That would be a first-time feat for the Emporia State players.
Senior Andrea Leiker, the lone four-year senior on this year’s team, was asked the other day when the last time the Lady Hornets won at Washburn. The 2005-06 season, Leiker’s sophomore year, was the correct answer. But that game was during the Regional tournament, and a regular season win at Washburn has not happened since the 2003-04 season.
Emporia State also has the chance to sweep Washburn for the first time since the 2000-01 season. Last year the Lady Blues pulled off the sweep and also ended Emporia State’s season in the Regional finals.
“Definitely winning (tonight) would be a pretty good feeling, especially kind of thinking about last year we didn’t play too well at their place,” Leiker said. “Yeah, it’d be a really good thing if we could win.”
Washburn lost in triple overtime on Saturday to Pittsburg State, which dropped the Lady Blues to 15-4 in the MIAA and made it so they could only share the league title with two ESU losses.
Emporia State has the best road record in the conference this year at 8-1, the only loss coming at Nebraska-Omaha. The road record and taking care of business at home with just one slip up against Southwest Baptist has put the Lady Hornets in prime position to not have to share the league title — like last season when they shared it with Washburn.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position because we played them one game at a time,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “We’ve put ourselves in this position because we’ve been pretty good on the road, and I think that’s what our focus needs to be. We have one more regular season road game and we set some goals, one of which is to be the best road team in the MIAA. I think for us to achieve that we’ve got to go have success there.”
Tonight’s game is just as important to Washburn, if not more, because the Lady Blues are still battling with Pitt State for the second seed in the MIAA tournament. Plus, it’s Washburn’s senior night.
Of course, once the ball is tipped, the championships and streaks and records will no long matter.
“Obviously that doesn’t have a lot to do with our motivation this year or our preparation,” Schneider said. “The fact that it’s Washburn is motivation enough, regardless of where we’re playing.”
ESU men (16-9, 10-8 MIAA) at Washburn (15-11, 11-8)
With two games left in the MIAA, the Emporia State men could finish anywhere between third and seventh place. Where they finish depends on results and a list of scenarios that makes the head hurt.
With a win tonight against Washburn, the Hornets guarantee themselves at least a fifth seed because they would have the tiebreaker against Washburn and Missouri Western.
Missouri Western is 9-9 with two games left against Central Missouri and Southwest Baptist, but if the Hornets, Ichabods and Griffons tie, the Hornets would be the top seed out of the three because they would have the best record against the two teams at 2-1.
To finish in seventh place, Missouri Western would have to win its final two games and Nebraska-Omaha (10-8) would have to win at least one of its final two games.
If the Hornets win both of their final games, they would finish as the third seed because they would hold the tiebreaker over Nebraska-Omaha and Fort Hays State.
“It’s the seeding, but down the road, it’s still Washburn,” ESU coach David Moe said of the implications of tonight’s game. “We feel like we’ve gotten better and we’re trying to get to a point this time of year where you’re playing your best. Washburn at Washburn as talented as they are and as good as they are, we’ve got to give ourselves a chance to go and compete.”
The odds are against the Hornets, who are 3-6 on the road in conference. Plus, Washburn has lost only one game at home this season — to second-place Central Missouri.
“We’re better at home than we are on the road,” Moe said. “That’s just a natural phenomenon. The energy. Most guys shoot better at home than they do on the road, and the ability to handle adversity, because there’s not as much adversity at home as there is on the road because the crowd helps you limit that.”
The Hornets go into the game full strength and with a week’s rest; however, they do have some guys nursing injuries. Robert Moores did not practice on Tuesday because of a foot strain, but he is expected to play tonight.
“The more days off, the more guys we got hurt it seems like,” Moe said. “We’ve got several guys banged up, and I don’t think we’ve been practicing. How’d we get hurt? But it’s the end of the year, it’s the end of the grind. You get a lot of little nicks and sometimes it’s better to take a break.”