Brittney Miller used her tremendous hops to get her left arm over the net and pierce unreturnable kills straight down into Fort Hays State’s court. Arica Shepard brought the heat on her spikes, too. Emporia State operated efficiently and intensely.
In other words, no letdown from Friday night. More like carryover.
The Hornet volleyball team followed up Friday’s five-set win over Washburn with a three-set sweep of Fort Hays State on Saturday night at White Auditorium, earning their eighth straight victory and their seventh sweep in those eight matches.
“We know Washburn’s always big, and everyone’s up on that game,” said Miller, who led ESU with 14 kills on Saturday. “But we know we have no room to slack, and come to play a game like this and mess up. So we try to bring the same emotion to every game. Every game’s a big game for us, so that’s what we’re trying to work on.”
If the Hornets (22-2, 9-1 MIAA) can keep the energy level high for playing a 6-17 team like Fort Hays one night after the Washburn game, they’re capable of bringing it anytime. And that’s what they did Saturday, starting with a 25-17 win in Set 1. Two kills by Shepard to start the set, along with three more by Miller and two by Katelyn Schmidtberger helped the Hornets come out of the gate with a 9-2 lead. Fort Hays fought back, staying within two points as late as 13-11, but from there, the Tigers handed the Hornets four straight points on a bad set and three attack errors. Back-to-back kills by Miller later made it 19-12, and Schmidtberger added two kills of her own before a Shepard spike ended the set.
“Every team in our league is good, so we know we can’t take anyone for granted,” said Schmidtberger, who had four of her eight kills in Set 1. “So that was big — we had to come out strong and hit ’em right from the start.”
ESU started inauspiciously in the second set, and coach Bing Xu finally called timeout after a Lillian Rezende kill completed a 4-0 run to give Fort Hays a 6-2 lead. The Hornets came back to tie the set at 8, and from there, the teams traded shots, points and leads up until it was 15-15. Then, a block by Schmidtberger and Brianne Boner, an attack error and a Ting Liu set over the net that found the floor made it 18-15 in favor of the Hornets, and Fort Hays called timeout. But the Tigers didn’t see the lead again, and a Katelyn Kaiser kill finished off a 25-19 win.
The final set was never really close, with Miller starting hot on her way to seven kills for the set. She put down four in ESU’s first six points, the last one hammered straight downward to make it 6-3. Consecutive kills by Caitlyn Murray, Shepard and Kaiser got the Hornets to match point, and an attack error by Hays’ Brandi Bertrand provided the clinching point of the 25-14 win.
Xu knows his eighth-ranked team has found a winning groove, and he thought playing Washburn one night earlier was an advantage.
“With a big game, we can carry the momentum into tonight,” he said. “And on the other side, sometimes it’s easy to drop the intensity. ... But before the game, we had a meeting, we told them, ‘Hey, don’t never ever underestimate your opponents. No matter who we’re playing, we’ve gotta play our own game, we have our pace.’ So they did it tonight.”
Shepard backed Miller with 12 kills and also had a team-high 16 digs. Ting Liu had 37 assists and 13 digs, and Amy Byfield added 12 digs. The Hornets hit .346 for the match and held Hays to a .096 hitting rate.
The Hornets are back at White on Wednesday night when they host No. 20 Truman State.
DJrocksthemic (anonymous) says...
Isn't that an Emporia High Player, this story is about Emporia State Athletics.
October 20, 2009 at 9:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DJrocksthemic (anonymous) says...
That is a still an Emporia High player in the picture!
October 21, 2009 at 3:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
Kolmer from EHS
October 21, 2009 at 5:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )