ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- No. 25 Washburn (14-9, 8-8) finished out its week on the road with a five set loss to Missouri Western State (18-7, 11-5) on Saturday evening in a two plus hour match. The Ichabods return home next week and will face Central Oklahoma on Friday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m.
Both teams traded the first four sets back and forth with the Griffons striking first with a 25-21 win. Washburn followed, winning 25-18 in the second, MWSU won 25-22 in the third and WU took the fourth 25-18 again. Missouri Western got hot and won the final set 15-6.
The first 18 points were representative of the match, split between each team evenly. Corinna McMullen set up Austin Broadie for a kill to tie the set there. The Ichabods went on a 5-0 run in the middle of the set which included two kills by Jalyn Stevenson to go up 17-14, the largest lead of the set for Washburn. The Griffons responded right back with a 5-0 run of their own. The Ichabods got within one point later in the set but a 3-0 run by MWSU put it out of reach and they came away with a 25-21 win.
A 4-0 burst beginning and ending with kills by Bella Limback gave Washburn some breaking room at 8-4 in the second. Back-to-back aces by McMullen finished up a quick 3-0 burst to make it 15-10. The Ichabod offense, which recorded 16 kills in the set, the most by any team in the match, took over to complete the second set match evening win on a kill by Limback.
Missouri Western went on a 3-0 run early in the third set going from down one to up by two at 9-7 and they never trailed again in the set. Four times Washburn would come back to tie it, the latest coming at 16-16 after a MWSU attacking error. The Ichabods outhit the Griffons .231 to .136 in the set but were not able to complete a late comeback, falling 25-22.
Another ace from McMullen put Washburn up 7-2 in the fourth set and the lead continued to grow with a carry over of a strong hitting performance from the third set along with Missouri Western falling into more mistakes than previous sets. A 6-0 Ichabod streak beginning by Rachel Schwensen knocking down a kill put it out of reach. Schwensen came through again to finish the set off, this time with an assist from Sydney Conner to win 25-18.
The fifth set was all offense for Missouri Western which won the first six points in the frame and hit .524 as a team with no attacking errors. Back-to-back kills by Schwensen made the set 10-5 but the Griffons won five of the last six to wrap up the match at 3-2 and protect home court.
The Ichabods outpaced Missouri Western in several categories, holding advantages in hitting percentage at .177 to .168, and kills in general 57 to 56. They dished out three more assists than the team from St. Joseph and were out-dug by just one, 93 to 92.
Rachel Schwensen had 14 kills to lead Washburn, hitting .205. Jalyn Stevenson had a 12 kill 22 dig double-double. Bella Limback added 12 kills while attacking at a .458 clip with five blocks. Corinna McMullen dished out a team-high 29 assists and notched a 10 dig double-double while Taylor Rottinghaus led in digs with 26.
Taylor Russell led the match with 24 kills on .396 hitting. Nessa Johnson had 49 assists for the Griffons and Anna Weberg reached the 30-dig mark with 30 exactly.
