Emporia State volleyball coach Bing Xu called one timeout on Tuesday night, and really only had one point to make to his team the whole night.
The ninth-ranked Hornets cruised to a sweep of Southwest Baptist — 25-17, 25-21, 25-11 — and maybe finally learned a lesson that Xu has been trying to emphasize all season.
If the Hornets have a flaw, it’s their lack of communication. It’s the reason they lost last Friday to Pittsburg State, and it was the reason they let SBU rally from a 5-0 deficit in the second set to tie the set at 5.
Xu called timeout and told his team that four of the Bearcats’ five points had come because of communication errors, and they had to start talking.
“Apparently it’s been an issue the past couple games,” senior Arica Shepard said. “I don’t know why. I think after he yelled at us a little bit, which is a rare occasion, we got the message, and I don’t think we had very many after that.”
Other than the one lapse in communication in the second set, the Hornets dominated a lesser foe as usual. They held the Bearcats to a .095 hitting percentage. ESU had a balanced offensive attack, with Britteny Miller leading the way with 12 kills, followed by Shepard with 11. Ting Liu had eight kills, 28 assists and seven digs.
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