September 7, 2019-Emporia State's attempt to win their third straight regular season match against a top 25 team came up short in a 3-1 loss to #23 Central Washington. The Hornets fell 25-13, 25-23, 25-18, 26-24 in their first match of the day on Saturday at the Washburn Invitational.
For the third time this year the Hornets dropped their first set, this time 25-13.
Emporia State came back to take a 25-23 victory in set two. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never trailed in the set. Central Washington did come back to tie the score at 20-20 but the Hornets scored the next two points on kills from
Aliyah Bernard and
Allie Christensen to get a two point lead and held off the Wildcats.
The Hornets led by four twice in the fourth set only to see the Wildcats come back and tie the score at 20-20. CWU took at 24-22 lead but Emporia State fought off two match points on kills from
Yuchen Du and Bernard to tie the set at 24. Central Washington would then get kills from Bridgette Webb and Kyla Morgan to claim the 26-24 win.
Du recorded her third straight double-double to start the season with 13 kills and ten digs. Bernard had 11 kills on .423 hitting while
Mikayla Simons added 12 kills.
Shelby Innes had a team high 19 digs while
Emma Dixon had 37 assists with 14 digs, two solo blocks and two block assists.
The Hornets will wrap up the tournament at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday against Quincy in their final match of the Washburn Invitational.
