September 3, 2021-The Hornets made their official return to the volleyball court for the first time in 657 days only to fall 3-0 to UT-Tyler on Friday afternoon at the Southeastern Classic in Durant, Okla. Emporia State fell 25-16, 32-30, 25-19...
Orianna Clements scored the first point of the season as the Hornets took a 1-0 lead. The score was tied at 15 when the Patriots went on a 7-0 run to take control of the first set on the way to a 25-16 win.
UT-Tyler led 3-1 to start the second set when Emporia State went on an 8-3 run to go up 9-6. The Hornets led 16-11 on a kill by
Mikayla Simons, however she came down on a Patriot player at the net to injure her ankle and did not return to the match. Emporia State would score two more points after that to go up 18-11 and held a 21-14 lead when UT-Tyler began their comeback. The Patriots would go on a 7-1 run to pull within 22-21 and force and Emporia State timeout. An attack error by UTT gave the Hornets their first set point at 24-23. Emporia State would end up with three more set points at 25-24, 26-25, and 29-28, while the Patriots would have three at 27-26, 28-27 and 30-29 before UT-Tyler scored the final two points for a 32-30 win. There were a total of 12 ties and four lead changes in the second set.
The Hornets jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set and led 6-2 before the Patriots took the lead for good with a 7-0 run. Emporia State trailed by ten before going on an 8-2 run to pull within 21-17 and force a UT-Tyler timeout. The Patriots finished the match on a4-2 run to claim a 25-19 win in the set and 3-0 win in the match.
Shelby Ebert led Emporia State with 9.5 pionts, finishing with nine kills and a block assist, while digging 14 balls.
Dorianne Lebron had six kills, two block assists and an ace while
Mikayla Simons had five kills and an ace before leaving the match in nthe second set.
Megan Stretton had five kills and matched Ebert with 14 digs while
Ainslee Stepp had 23 assists.
The Hornets will be back in action with two matches on Saturday. They will play the host school Southeastern Oklahoma State at 11:00 a.m. and finish their stay in Durant with a match against Southern Nazarene at 5:00 p.m.
