By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
KEARNEY, Neb. – No. 2-ranked Washburn University volleyball opened the 2022 season with a pair of shutout victories at the Nebraska-Kearney Fall Classic on Friday, with the Ichabods sweeping Central Washington and Minot State.
The Ichabods opened the day with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-15 win over Central Washington before taking a 25-9, 25-12, 25-17 win over Minot State
Jalyn Stevenson
Iyannah Jackson
Washburn will close out its opening weekend of competition on Saturday with matches against Midwestern State and Sioux Falls.
The WU-Central Washington match started out tightly contested with seven lead changes and 12 tied scores in the opening set.
Trailing 15-11, a kill from Halle Meister started a 7-1 run to push the Ichabods in front, 18-16. The Wildcats clawed back and took a one-point advantage at 19-18 and 20-19 when back-to-back kills from Iyannah Jackson and Meister gave Washburn a 21-20 lead.
Central Washington scored only one more point in the set to knot up the score at 21 before the Ichabods rattled off the next four in a row to win, 25-21.
Samatha Moburg was involved in each of the final four points as she recorded three kills and was a part of a block.
The second set got going with more back-and-forth scoring until Washburn broke the 5-5 tie with seven unanswered points and capitalized on four Wildcat errors during that stint.
Although Central Washington trimmed the deficit to two at 14-12, the Ichabods never trailed in the set and captured another 25-21 win.
Washburn's offense came out swinging to begin the third set as its first six points were on kills from four different players.
Holding a 14-11 lead, the Ichabods started to pull away with a 5-0 run that saw four miscues from the Wildcats.
Washburn rolled to the 25-15 third-set victory and hit .500 in the set with 14 kills to secure the sweep.
The Ichabods finished the match hitting .297 while the Wildcats had a .117 attacking percentage. Washburn led in kills, 42-35, and had a slight edge in digs, 35-32.
A trio of Ichabods led the offense with eight kills and hit above .400. In her Ichabod debut.
Jackson started the match and knocked down eight kills on 10 attempts with one error for a sizzling .700 attacking percentage. She was also a part of three blocks.Meister and Moburg both recorded career-highs in kills with eight apiece and hit .545 and .429, respectively.
Freshman Limback had seven kills and Jalyn Stevenson contributed seven kills and two service aces.
A pair of freshman setters made their first appearances on the court for Washburn as Corinna McMullen and Sydney Conner split duties and both had 17 assists. Libero Sydney Pullen scooped up a team-high 11 digs in the back court.
Central Washington was led by Emma Daoud-Herbert's nine kills on 13 swings with zero errors. She also added four blocks in the match.
The Ichabods cruised in the first set against Minor State, jumping out to a 12-4 lead to start the match.
Washburn had five service aces and benefitted from 16 errors committed by Minot State in the opening frame to roll to the 25-9 win.
Washburn led from start to finish in the second set as well.
The Ichabods were in front 8-5 when Stevenson started a 10-1 scoring tear to extend the lead. Stevenson put a bow on the set for the second straight game with a kill to give the Ichabods a 25-12 victory and a 2-0 match advantage.
The Ichabods captured the first two points of the third set, but the Beavers kept the score within two or fewer points until the 6-5 mark in the game when miscues proved costly again for Minot State and the Ichabods were awarded four of the next five points.
Errors began to plague the Ichabods over the next five Beaver points and they pulled within one at 12-11 before a kill by McMullen, back-to-back MSU ball handling errors, and an attacking error created a 16-11 cushion for WU. The Ichabods held on to their lead and finished the sweep with kills from Moburg and Austin Broadie in a 25-17 decision.
Washburn hit .235 on the afternoon and Minot State finished at an even .000 as the Beavers had 19 kills, but also 19 attacking errors. The Ichabods had an impressive day behind the serving line and led in aces, 12-2.
Ten different Ichabods recorded at least one kill as the offense was led by Stevenson, who recorded the six kills to go with six digs. Broadie knocked down five kills and Ella Waters had four kills on five attempts in her Washburn debut.
McMullen and Conner shared the role of setter again and notched 13 and 10 assists, respectively. Pullen led the defense with nine digs and she also had a team-high three aces.
The Beavers had three players lead the offense with four kills each.
