WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The No. 6 Washburn volleyball team started the NCAA postseason with a 3-1 victory over No. 10 Winona State in the Central Region quarterfinal on Thursday evening. Washburn will now face No. 1-ranked Central Missouri on Friday (Dec. 3) evening in the semifinal match at 7:30 p.m.
The Ichabods won by the set scores of 25-12, 19-25, 25-16, and 25-17 to improve their overall record 27-5.
The match was back-and-forth to start as neither team held a lead of more than two points until Washburn put together an 18-2 scoring tear to take a commanding 23-9 advantage.
Allison Maxwell put the set away with a kill to give the Ichabods a 1-0 lead.
The second set started out similar to the first, but it was the Warriors (28-4) who put together a 9-2 run to go in front, 17-13. Trailing 19-14, the Ichabods won five of the next six points to pull within one, but that would be as close as it got as Winona State closed out the set with five unanswered points.
The Warriors scored the first two points of the third frame, but Washburn responded with a 9-1 run and never looked back.
Genna Berg ended the 25-16 set win with her seventh kill in the third game.
Winona State took an early lead and was up 9-7 when a kill from
Sydney Fitzgibbons sparked an 8-2 run to give the Ichabods a 15-11 lead. The teams traded points until Berg knocked down a kill to make it 21-16 and Washburn went on to claim four of the final five points capped off by a kill by
Kelsey Gordon.
Washburn hit .232 on the night while Winona State was limited to a .084 hitting percentage. The Ichabods led in kills, 52-43, and in digs, 85-71.
Berg led all players with 19 kills and added 14 digs to record her seventh double-double of the season.
Allison Maxwell knocked down a dozen kills and
Kelsey Gordon also contributed double-figure kills with 10. Defensively, Gordon and
Sydney Fitzgibbons were a wall at the net and were a part of seven blocks.
Setter
Allison Sadler recorded her 10th double-double with 40 assists to go with 14 digs. In the back court,
Faith Rottinghaus led all players with 27 digs.
Taylor Antonowich scooped up 12 digs and landed two of Washburn's six service aces.
For the Warriors, Megan Flom had 17 kills and a .239 hitting percentage.
WASHBURN NOTES:
- Washburn is now 16-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 8-7 in the regional quarterfinal match.
- Washburn also improved to 2-2 as the No. 5 seed and is now 3-1 when playing against the No. 4 seed in postseason action.
- WU is 1-3 all-time against the No. 1 seeded team in the NCAA Regional Tournament. Washburn defeated top-seeded Truman State in the regional championship match in 2007.
- The Ichabods have already defeated a No. 1-ranked team this season as they topped Nebraska-Kearney in four sets on the road on Sept. 18.
- In head coach Chris Herron's tenure, his teams have gone 4-4 when playing the No. 1 team in the nation.
- This will mark the third time this season the Ichabods and Jennies have squared off. Washburn won the first meeting in four sets in Warrensburg on Sept. 25 and Central Missouri claimed a 3-1 decision in Topeka on Oct. 21.
- These two programs have met in the NCAA regional tournament six times and UCM leads the series, 5-1.
- The last time WU and UCM played each other in the NCAA postseason was in the 2011 regional final.
- Washburn's NCAA postseason victory over Central Missouri occurred in the 2007 regional semifinal match when WU swept UCM.
