TOPEKA, Kan. --- The Washburn Ichabod volleyball team opened the 2018 campaign with a pair of 3-0 victories on Friday, Aug. 24 as it blanked Dallas Baptist and Colorado State-Pueblo as part of the Washburn Invitational presented by Topeka Capitol Plaza Hotel. Washburn concludes the opening weekend of the season on Saturday when it faces off against Colorado-Colorado Springs at 11 am before squaring off against Southeastern Oklahoma in the finale at 5 pm.
 
Shayla Conner paced the offense as she dished out 56 total assists, including a match-best 37 in the outing against Dallas Baptist. Allison Maxwell meanwhile was the most potent weapon as her 13-kill performance against Colorado State-Pueblo was a single-match best by an Ichabod during day one of the event and followed an 11-kill effort in the season opener. Maxwell finished the day hitting .611 as she tallied 22 kills on 36 attempts.
 
Freshman Taylor Antonowich began her Washburn career in style by notching her first collegiate double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs in her debut against DBU.
 
Collectively, Washburn's hitting percentage never dipped below .300 following any set it played, with its lowest mark posted being .310 and its best at .480, both were recorded during the DBU match. The Ichabods overall for day one tallied a .396 hitting percentage with 74 kills on 187 attempts with 16 errors.
 
Washburn 3, DBU 0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-16)
The Ichabods grabbed control early as they opened the match with a 7-2 run. The Lady Patriots trimmed the margin to three at 10-7 before Washburn rattled off five of the six points including four-straight. After leading by as much as six, 17-11, pulled within one at 20-19, but it was not enough as back-to-back kills from Erica Montgomery accounted for two of the final five points needed to take the first set.
 
A 5-1 deficit to start the second was not enough to keep Washburn down as it responded by tallying the next points moving out, 7-5. Tied at 12-12, the Ichabods pulled with a pair of four-point runs to see themselves with a 20-13 cushion, before eventually taking a 2-0 match lead with a 25-17 set win.
 
With its most efficient set of the day, Washburn never trailed in the third set as it put away 14 kills on 25 swings with two errors. The Ichabods rolled out to a 15-7 advantage as a result of a series of two and three-point spurts before completing with the 3-0 sweep with a 25-16 set.
 
Washburn 3, CSU-P 0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-12)
Tested during the second frame, Washburn cruised past the ThunderWolves during the first and third sets. In the first, WU registered 14 kills on 28 attempts and two errors and at one point strung together a season-best seven unanswered points to claim a 17-6 lead. Meanwhile, in the third, the Ichabods converted 13 of 26 attempts for kills for a match-best .462 hitting percentage.
 
The second set saw Washburn hit .351 as it posted 15 kills and two errors behind 37 swings. During the middle stanza, CSU-P and WU see-sawed back-and-forth as they battled through 11 ties during the first 28 points. Knotted at 15, the Ichabods broke the deadlock for the final time and never looked back as a CSU-P error and Allison Maxwell kill made it 17-15. Colorado State-Pueblo cut the lead to one before a 3-1 spurt nudged WU to 20-17. The Ichabods went on to win the set 25-21 as it accounted for five of the final eight points.