September 2, 2017-The Emporia State volleyball team split two matches on the final day of the Washburn Classic on Saturday, falling in five sets to Mo.-St. Louis and defeating Western State (Colo.) in three sets.
The Hornets and Tritons battled for nearly two hours in their first match of the day. Emporia State took the first set 29-27 on a solo block by Yuchen Du. UMSL came back to take set two 25-17 and set three 25-19 for a 2-1 advantage. The Hornets trailed 23-21 in the fourth set and were able to come back and force extra points. They faced two match points, at 27-26 and 28-27, before Du had back to back kills to force a fifth set. The Tritons scored four straight points to take a 6-3 lead and the Hornets would not get closer than two points the rest of the way in the 15-7 loss.
Du recorded a triple double with 19 kills, 19 assists and ten digs. She hit .333 in the match and added five blocks. Emma Dixon also had 19 assists and ten digs for the Hornets while Jamie Hauptman had 13 kills and Tatum Graves recorded eight blocks. Allie Maloney was also in double figures in digs with 13.
Emporia State hit a season high .321 while limiting Western State to .000 hitting in the Hornet sweep. Despite playing five sets earlier, the Hornets jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the match on the way to a 25-17 win in set one. The Mountaineers led 15-13 in the second set, but the Hornets went on an 8-1 run to take the lead on the way to a 25-19 victory. The two teams were tied at 18 in the third set when Emporia State closed it out with a 7-2 run. Five of the points during the run were off Western State errors.
Du finished with eight kills on .538 hitting with 15 assists. Dixon had a team high 17 assists while Maloney recorded a match high 13 digs. Valerie Golder had five kills on .625 hitting with five blocks.
The Hornets will travel to Bolivar, Mo. next weekend for four matches at the SBU Classic.
