November 3, 2018- Emporia State Volleyball defeated #17 Central Oklahoma 3-2 in White Auditorium on Saturday. The Hornets had to fight back after falling behind 2-0 in a close first two sets.
The Hornets jumped out to an early 6-3 lead in the first set. After the two teams exchanged points the Bronchos used a 5-0 run to take the lead 9-7 but the Hornets fought back to regain the lead at 14-11. Scoring back and forth, the set saw five tie scores before the Bronchos took the late lead and finished the set 25-22.
In the second set, the Hornets used a 3-0 run to take their first lead at 6-5. The Bronchos quickly answered with a 4-0 run of their own to take the 9-6 lead and force an Emporia State timeout. Out of the timeout, the Hornets brought the score within one at 11-10. The Bronchos extended their lead to 13-10 before the Hornets fought to take the lead with a 10-1 run sparked by two kills from Jordan Evans. Trailing 20-14, the #17 Bronchos strong attack carried them back into the set to tie the score at 24-24. After two tie scores, the Bronchos took set two 28-26 to gain the 2-0 match lead.
After taking an early 6-1 lead in set three, the Hornets did not trail until the Bronchos took the lead at 16-15. Emporia State's largest deficit of the set came at 21-17 before the Hornets used a 4-0 run to tie the set. The remainder of the set saw eight tie scores before the Hornets used a 3-0 run to finish out the set with the 31-29 win.
In the fourth set, Emporia State scored the first three points and pushed their lead to 7-1 early in the set. Using the early momentum, the Hornets would never trail in the set although allowing the Bronchos within one at 10-9 and 18-17. The Hornets extended their lead with a 5-0 lead before finishing the set 25-20 to tie the match at 2-2.
The Hornets jumped out to an early lead again in the tie-breaker set. Emporia State held their largest lead of the set at 5-1 before the Bronchos battled back to tie the set at 8-8. A big block from Aliyah Bernard and Jamie Hauptman ignited a 6-1 for the Hornets that gave them the 14-9 lead over the #17 Bronchos. After two points for the Bronchos, Aliyah Bernard took the final kill of the match to give the Hornet the 15-11 set five win.
The Hornets were led by Yuchen Du with a triple-double of 18 kills, 26 assists and 29 digs. Jordan Evans and Emma Dixon each recorded double-doubles for the Hornets. Evans had 11 kills and 22 digs while Dixon had a match high 40 assists with 19 digs. Jamie Hauptman led all players with 23 kills while Aliyah Bernard and Tatum Graves joined in double digit kills. Bernard recorded 14 while Graves had 10. Allie Maloney led all players with 46 digs.
Emporia State secured the #7 seed in the MIAA Tournament with the win. The Hornets will be back in action on Tuesday, November 6 as they take on Washburn in Topeka, Kan.
