By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Over the past few days, veteran Washburn University volleyball coach Chris Herron has experienced the extreme highs and lows of coaching.
Washburn's volleyball team reacts to the announcement that the Ichabods earned the No. 6 seed for this week's NCAA Central Region Tournament at Wayne, Neb. [Photo by Rick Peterson
Herron was in the dumps after the Ichabods suffered a disappointing loss to Missouri Western in their regular-season finale, which put Washburn's NCAA Tournament hopes in severe jeopardy.
But Washburn experienced a dramatic transformation in last week's MIAA Tournament, with WU earning the automatic NCAA bid with its first-ever MIAA tournament championship after posting three straight wins over nationally-ranked opponents.
"To be honest with you I thought the season was over (after the Western loss),'' Herron said, "and we just flipped it 180 (degrees). I'm incredibly happy for this group to be able to finish like this.''
On Sunday night the 24-7 Ichabods were installed as the No. 6 seed in the Central Region and will face No. 3 seed Minnesota Duluth at 12 p.m. on Friday in Wayne, Neb. Match times will be announced later.
The Central Region bracket consists of four teams from the NSIC, three from the MIAA, and the automatic qualifier from the GAC.
Tournament host Wayne State will be the No. 1 seed and take on No. 8 seed Harding in the quarterfinal while No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul will face No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney and No. 4 Northwest Missouri will play No. 5 St. Cloud State.
Washburn opened its MIAA Tournament run with a five-set win over Central Oklahoma and then knocked off top seed Northwest Missouri in four sets before closing out the championship with a 25-18, 19-25, 25-22, 25-20 victory over No. 2 seed and No. 12-ranked Nebraska-Kearney.
Senior libero Sydney Pullen said the key to Washburn's tournament performance was that the Ichabods just relaxed and played their game.
"We went in thinking we had nothing to lose at that point and we said, 'We're going to give it all we've got right now,' and we did that and put it all out there and that got us the win,'' Pullen said. "We were just working hard and just tried to win every point.''
Austin Broadie, a redshirt freshman, led Washburn offensively in the MIAA championship match as she knocked down a season-high 18 kills for a .359 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Jalyn Stevenson was close behind with 17 kills and a .326 attacking percentage and achieved her 14th double-double of the fall as she also scooped up 18 digs.
Senior Halle Meister contributed nine kills and had a match-high eight block assists.
Corinna McMullen recorded 33 assists and had eight digs. Sydney Conner notched 20 assists and landed a service ace.
Pullen led the team with 19 digs and Sophie McMullen had 15 digs.
The Ichabod quartet of Stevenson, Meister, Pullen and Kealy Kiviniemi were selected to the All-Tournament team.
Herron has led Washburn to all of its 17 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and since 2018 the Ichabods have gone 9-3 in the NCAA postseason with two Central Region titles.
WU reached the national semifinal in 2018 and the national championship match last season.
NCAA VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT
Central Region at Wayne, Neb.
Friday quarterfinal pairings
No. 1 Wayne State (Nebraska) (29-2) vs. No. 8 Harding (30-1)
No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul (26-5) vs. No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney (28-5)
No. 3 Minnesota Duluth (26-4) vs. No. 6 Washburn (24-7)
No. 4 Northwest Missouri State (24-6) vs. No. 5 St. Cloud State (26-5)
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