Arica Shepard went up for the kill that would have tied the fourth set at 24 and given Emporia State a chance to force a fifth game.
Shepard is the most accomplished hitter in the MIAA, and when she rises up and connects, the ball rarely comes back.
But as the night had gone already, two Truman State players met Shepard at the net, and the ball landed back in Shepard’s lap, ending a frustrating 3-1 loss (25-17, 26-24, 21-25, 25-23) for seventh-ranked Emporia State.
“It was almost as if we were playing not expecting them to return the ball,” ESU senior Amy Byfield said. “You can’t play like that, especially when you play good teams.”
Getting upset by Truman State, ranked 19th, is nothing new for the Hornets. The Bulldogs have ended the Hornets’ season three straight years and are the only team to win at White Auditorium the last two seasons, upsetting ESU 3-0 in last year’s Regional championship.
Emporia State swept Truman during the regular season last year and had already won 3-1 at Truman on Sept. 26 this year. But from the start, the Hornets continued to fight their Truman demons Wednesday night.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily anything they did compared to what we don’t do as a team,” Byfield said. “We didn’t play like ourselves and we didn’t do what we needed to do, and that game reflected it.
“From the beginning, it felt exactly like Regionals last year.”
Unlike last year, the Hornets had a temporary momentum swing in the third set when Xu pulled regulars Brittney Miller, Katelyn Schmidtberger, Brianne Boner and Jenna Snook in favor of sophomore Megan Lueger and freshmen Nicole Gingery, Caitlyn Murray and Meg Schwartz.
Lueger and the three freshmen helped the Hornets rally from an early 6-4 deficit to win the third set 25-21.
“They came out there and played with really great intensity and brought a lot of emotion out on the court, which is what we needed right then,” Shepard said. “It helped out tremendously.”
Xu stayed with his younger lineup in the fourth set and neither team took more than a two-point lead until Truman scored three straight points to take an 18-15 lead.
Xu called a time out and the Hornets responded with a 4-1 run to tie the game at 19 on a Gingery block. Truman scored the next two points to once again take command, and ESU would pull within a point three more times on a Lueger kill and two kills by Murray, but they could not get back to a tie.
All was not lost however, as the bench players proved to Xu that they can make a difference.
“We’re always playing seven or six players, and now we know we have more options for this team,” Xu said.
The problems for the starters were the same as they’ve been in the seventh-ranked Hornets other three losses. The Hornets hit just .122 against Truman (19-8, 7-4 MIAA), and the only other matches they’ve hit under .200 have been their other two losses.
The Bulldogs’ blockers caused most of the problems. They had five of their 12 blocks in the first set, which changed the way the ESU hitters attacked.
“Truman is always a blocking team and we know that coming in,” said Shepard, who led ESU with 16 kills. “Bing was saying if you have an opening, you have to hit it quick. I don’t know if we were hesitating or weren’t swinging quick enough, but when those chances come around, we’ve got to use them.”
With the loss, Emporia State (22-3, 9-2 MIAA) dropped to 1 1/2 games behind Central Missouri in the conference standings. They will get a chance to get back to the top next Wednesday at home against the Jennies.
They’ll have to wait until Regionals to possibly get a shot at ending Truman’s season for a change.
“That’s how they beat us same way in the Regionals,” Xu said. “You have to learn from it. You’ve got to remember this game.”
admireed (anonymous) says...
4 or 5 very good teams in the MIAA. Only UCM seems to be unbeatable (so far)
October 22, 2009 at 1:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )