TOPEKA, Kan. -- Marissa Cox and Leanna Willer combined for 31 kills off 86 attacks in a 25-18, 27-25, 25-20 sweep over Emporia State Tuesday at Schendel Court in Lee Arena in both teams MIAA opener.

The fifth-ranked Ichabods improved to 9-0 as they swept their eighth opponent this year. They will travel to Northwest Missouri Friday at 7 p.m. to continue conference play.

Cox had 19 kills, five digs and three blocks. She now has 992 career kills and will enter the weekend needing eight more to becomeTOPEKA, Kan. -- Marissa Cox and Leanna Willer combined for 31 kills off 86 attacks in a 25-18, 27-25, 25-20 sweep over Emporia State Tuesday at Schendel Court in Lee Arena in both teams MIAA opener.

The fifth-ranked Ichabods improved to 9-0 as they swept their eighth opponent this year. They will travel to Northwest Missouri Friday at 7 p.m. to continue conference play.

Cox had 19 kills, five digs and three blocks. She now has 992 career kills and will enter the weekend needing eight more to become the 18th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club.
 
Willer had a double-double with 12 kills and 15 digs and she added three service aces. Natalie Bates led Washburn's offense with 30 assists and Alyssa Carney had 22 digs to lead the defense. Mattie-Ann Swenson had a hand on five of Washburn's six blocks.
 
The Ichabods improved to 13-0 in MIAA openers under coach Chris Herron and they won their 10th straight match against the Hornets. This is the third straight year Washburn opened conference play with a 3-0 sweep over Emporia State.
 
The Ichabods nearly let the Hornets (4-2, 0-1 MIAA) even the match in the second set as there were 16 ties and nine lead changes. Emporia State fell behind early, 4-1 but came back to lead 8-6. Both teams later traded 5-0 runs with the last one putting the Ichabods up 16-15. Neither team could score more than two straight points the rest of the way to pull ahead. The Hornets got to set point first at 24-23 but an ESU error and then a kill from Cox gave Washburn the advantage at 25-24. ESU's Josie Williams evened the set with a kill before two more ESU errors gave the Ichabods the 27-25 win.
 
The third set was played nearly as close with 10 ties and four lead changes but the Ichabods scored five of the final six points to win by five. Cox had the final two kills.
 
Washburn hit .201 in the match while the Hornets had a .173 attack percentage. The Ichabods edged ESU in kills, 46-42 and in digs, 69-59. Washburn earned nine points on serves with four aces and five ESU errors.
 
Williams led the Hornets with 11 kills and Carly Spicer had 10. Kelly Holden had 19 digs.