Box Score | Season Stats

EMPORIA, Kan. -- The fifth-ranked Lady Blues rallied for a 3-2 (23-25, 25-13, 24-26, 25-20, 15-7) win over Emporia State on Friday night at White Auditorium to claim a share of their third MIAA championship. The Lady Blues tied with Central Missouri with identical 18-2 conference records, but by virtue of their season sweep of the Jennies, the Lady Blues receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA-II South Central Regional. The pairings will be released on Sunday night at 9 p.m.

The Hornets (21-9, 12-7 MIAA) used an 8-0 run to grab control of the first set. The lead grew to as many as seven before the Lady Blues (30-2, 18-2 MIAA) rallied to tie the set at 22-all. However, ESU won three of the final four points to claim the opener.

Washburn steamrolled to a win in the second set holding the Hornets to a .021 hitting percentage. The Lady Blues opened the set on an 8-2 run and won 12 of the first 16 points. WU led by as many as 13 before tying the match at one set apiece with a 25-13 win.

The Lady Blues jumped out to another big lead in the third set only to see the Hornets rally to within a point at 9-8. A 10-4 run by Washburn gave the Blues a 20-13 lead, but back came ESU again and this time they closed out the set 26-24.

The Hornets took a 3-1 lead early in set four, but the Lady Blues took the lead for good at 6-5. WU extended the lead to as many as eight and went on to win the set 25-20 to force a fifth and deciding game.

Emporia State won the first point in the fifth set, but after that it was all Washburn. The Lady Blues used an 8-0 run to grab a 10-3 lead and finished off the match on a service ace by Jessica Fey.

Hillary Hughes recorded her eighth double-double of the season with a match and career-high 19 kills to go along with 14 digs. Three other Lady Blues finished with double-figure kills. Fey had 15 followed by Breanna Lewis with 12 and Mollie Lacy with 10. Fey and Lacy had five blocks apiece to lead WU.

Molly Smith accounted for 35 of Washburn's 110 digs on the night. The 35 digs led four Washburn players with at least 10 and moved Smith into seventh place on the MIAA's career digs list with 2,029 for her career. Abby Wittman had a career-high 16 to go along with 27 assists and Amanda Guess had a career-high 15 to go along with 31 assists.

Brianne Boner led ESU with 18 kills, while Katelyn Schmidtberger had 10. Meg Schwartz led four Hornets in double figures with 30 digs and Ting Liu had a match-high 41 assists to go along with 12 digs.

Washburn held Emporia State to an .072 hitting percentage, including -.050 in the fifth and deciding set.

The MIAA championship is Washburn's third under Chris Herron after having won the conference crown back in 2002 and 2005, in addition to capturing West Division crowns in 06 and 07. The 18 conference wins also set a new school record.


Coach Herron talks about winning MIAA championship



Senior libero Molly Smith