Bring on Washburn.
Obviously, the Emporia State volleyball team could use some competition.
Since dropping a five-set heartbreaker to West Texas A&M almost two weeks ago, the eighth-ranked Hornets have rolled to six straight sweeps.
Emporia State continued the trend on Tuesday with a 3-0 win at Southwest Baptist, dominating the first two sets and then holding on for a narrow win in the third.
Emporia State opened the match with a 25-18 win in the first set, going on a 12-4 run after Southwest Baptist tied the score at six.
The Hornets again went on a big run in the second set. With the score tied at 9, the Hornets scored nine of the next 11 points and went on to win 25-13.
Emporia State took an early 6-3 lead in the third set, but the Bearcats rallied to take a 9-8 advantage. Both teams traded leads the rest of the set with neither team gaining an advantage of more than two points before SBU took a 22-17 lead.
The Hornets fought back to tie the game at 24, and the Hornets eventually won on a Ting Liu kill 27-25.
ESU senior Arica Shepard hit a season-high .640 and had a match-high 17 kills.
Brittney Miller pushed her streak of double-figure kill matches to three as she finished with 10 kills.
Amy Byfield had her 16th straight double-figure dig match with 15. She is now the Emporia State career record holder in double-figure dig matches with 98. Liu led the team with 35 assists and also added three kills.
Middle hitter Brianne Boner returned from a knee injury on Tuesday to play for the first time since the loss to West Texas A&M. Boner played in two sets and finished with two kills.
Emporia State’s six straight wins have come against unranked teams, but No. 7 Washburn should be more of a challenge on Friday at White Auditorium.
The matchup also has big MIAA implications, with the second-place Hornets holding a one-game lead over Washburn in the conference standings.
Emporia State improved to 20-2 overall and 7-1 in the MIAA. Emporia State and Central Missouri — 9-1 in the MIAA — are the only one-loss teams left in the conference.