Women's Volleyball | 9/4/2013 10:19:00 AM
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Emporia State opens their 41st season of intercollegiate volleyball and their ninth under coach Bing Xu at the Midwestern State Hampton Inn-vitational in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Hornets have won six straight season openers and seven of eight under coach Xu.
SCOUTING THE HORNETS
Emporia State returns five starters, all of whom earned All-MIAA honors, from last year's 20-12 team that advanced to the MIAA Tournament Semifinals. Paige Vanderpool was named second-team All-MIAA honors for the second straight year while Carly Spicer, Courtney Haring, Katie Deutschmann and Brianna Kaiser earned honorable mention. Deutschmann was named the conference Freshman of the Year and and earned second-team All-MIAA honors while Haring earned Third-Team All-MIAA honors two years ago.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Northwestern Oklahoma State went 2-27 last season as they restarted their program after a 30 year absence.
McMurry was 25-10 last season in their first year of transition to NCAA Division II and the Heartland Conference.
Southern Nazarene went 13-19 last season with an 8-6 record in the Great American Conference.
Southwestern Oklahoma was 13-20 last season, but went 10-4 in the GAC.
SERIES RECORDS
Emporia State leads Northwestern Oklahoma State 2-0 with a win in 1977 before taking a 3-0 win last season at the Pittsburg State Classic.
This will be the first meeting between the Hornets and McMurry in volleyball.
The Hornets lead Southern Nazarene 3-0 after last season's 3-0 win at the Lady Blues Classic in Topeka.
Emporia State also leads Southwestern Oklahoma 3-0 following another 3-0 win at the Lady Blues Classic last year.
THE COACHES
Bing Xu is 193-74 in his ninth year as head coach at Emporia State. Xu has led the Hornets to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament in five of the last eight seasons. In 2008 he led Emporia State to its first MIAA Championship.
Gene Krieger is in his first season at Northwestern Oklahoma and is 313-138 in 13 seasons as a head coach.
Cammie Petree is 298-195 as she begins her 18th season at McMurry.
Kevin Ingram is 260-198 in his 13th season at Southern Nazarene.
Josh Collins is 13-20 in his second season at Southwestern Oklahoma State.
UP NEXT
The Hornets will travel to Warrensburg, Mo. to take part in the Peggy Martin Challenge next weekend. Emporia State will play two teams that received votes in the AVCA Preseason Poll.
