Emporia State clinched its first-ever MIAA title in high fashion tonight, defeating No. 10 Washburn in front of a record crowd at William Allen White Auditorium. Props to the Hornets, because this league is no joke and there are a couple of teams who have had a stranglehold on the title in the past. The MIAA had at least four teams in the Top 25 all season long so to win it … is pretty incredible. And of course there’s Eagle Karma involved, because we did a feature on ESU All-American Arica Shepard just over a month ago.
ESU 2008 MIAA VB CHAMPS (ESU PHOTO)
Here’s the release from ESU sports info director Donald Weast:
HORNETS SECURE OUTRIGHT MIAA VOLLEYBALL TITLE November 14, 2008-The #6 Emporia State volleyball team secured their first outright MIAA championship with a 25-17, 25-21, 28-26 victory over #10 Washburn in front of an MIAA record 2,432 at White Auditorium on Friday night. Lady Hornets Brittney Miller and All-American Arica Shepard combined for 26 kills to offset the Lady Blues All-American Monica Miesner’s 18 kills in the match.
After falling behind 1-0 on a Miesner kill to open the match, ESU jumped out to a 7-3 lead and never trailed in the first set. After ESU took a 24-15 lead, WU fought off a pair of set points before Hannah Carter ended the set with a kill.
The Hornets led 17-12 in the second set when the Lady Blues went on a
9-3 run to take a 21-20 lead. ESU then scored the final five points of the set, ending it on back to back kills by Megan Koster.
Neither team led by more than three points in the third set and WU actually fought off three match points before Arica Shepard got back to back kills to give ESU their first outright MIAA title.
In addition to her 12 kills, Arica Shepard had 22 digs for ESU. Ting Liu had a match high 41 assists for ESU while her counterpart for WU, Kate Hampson had 36 assists. Hannah Carter had six blocks to go with nine kills. Miesner was the only Lady Blue in double figure kills while Molly Smith added a match high 21 digs.
ESU is back in action on Saturday afternoon when they take on Ft. Hays State. The Senior Day match begins at 1 p.m. in White Auditorium.