By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University volleyball will begin its 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 6 seed in the Central Region, facing No. 3 seed and MIAA rival Nebraska-Kearney at 11 a.m. Thursday in St. Cloud, Minn. in a tournament quarterfinal.
Washburn volleyball will take a 20-7 record into its 18th NCAA Tournament appearance on Thursday in St. Cloud, Minn. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods begin the national tournament with a 20-7 record while Nebraska-Kearney is 30-2.
Thursday's match will be the third of the season between WU and UNK, with the Lopers taking a 3-0 win at home and a 3-2 win over the Ichabods in Lee Arena.
Washburn was knocked out of the MIAA Championship Tournament with a 3-1 quarterfinal round loss to Northwest Missouri on Nov. 21 while the Lopers went 15-1 in the MIAA regular season and came up short in the MIAA Championship Tournament final, falling to Central Oklahoma 3-1 on Nov. 23.
Washburn, which had made all 18 of its NCAA tournament appearances under coach Chris Herron, is 20-17 all-time in the national tournament and 8-9 in the opening round.
With a win in the first round the Ichabods would take on the quarterfinal winner between No. 2 seed Central Oklahoma and No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Senior Jalyn Stevenson leads Washburn with 296 kills while hitting .192 across 27 starts. She is also second on the squad in digs with 307 and in aces with 31. Stevenson has 11 double-doubles on the year and has recorded five double-digit kill matches in the last six.
Junior Alex Dvorak leads the Washburn defense with 130 blocks on the year while starting all 27 matches. She sits second on the team in kills with 220 and leads the team with a .373 hitting percentage. The junior ranked second in the MIAA in both total blocks and blocks per set. Her hitting percentage is tops in the conference and 23rd in the nation. In 18 of 27 matches she has recorded at least five blocks.
Sophomore Shawnee Heights product Taylor Rottinghaus has a team-high 514 digs across WU's 27 matches. She has chipped in 81 assists and served 27 aces. Rottinghaus ranked seventh in the MIAA in digs per set while also ranking sixth in in total digs. She has 12 matches with 20-plus digs.
Corinna McMullen paces Washburn with 640 assists and is also third on the team with 242 digs while serving a team-high 41 aces. The junior ranked third in the MIAA in aces per set while ranking eighth in both assists per set and total assists. She has a team-high 14 double-doubles on the year including seven of the last eight matches.
Herron is in his 23rd season at the helm of the Ichabod volleyball program with a career record of 623-139 at Washburn and led the Ichabods to the NCAA National Championship match in 2021.
Mia Berg has 313 kills for Nebraska-Kearney while hitting .327 and also leads the team with 112 total blocks and has added 52 digs.
Peyton Neff has 1,291 assists for the Lopers and has made 268 digs, second most on the team. She is second in the nation in assists per set and fourth nationally in total assists. Both marks led the MIAA.
Asha Regier leads UNK in kills with 320 while hitting .257.
Nebraska Kearney leads the all-time series with Washburn, 33-14.
