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Tigers take a small step up
11/12/2009
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
In the locker room, the Fort Hays State University volleyball players told first-year head coach Kurt Kohler that the Tigers had not won a set off perennial power Washburn University in four years. However, on Tuesday night, the Tigers stopped that streak in a 3-1 loss to the Lady Blues at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Fort Hays lost the first two sets 25-23, 25-17 before they came back to win the third set 26-24. Washburn won the fourth set 25-20.
The set marked the first time since 2004 that FHSU had won a set off Washburn. The Lady Blues had won seven straight matches by 3-0 scores.
"We are at a point right now in our season where any little victory right now is an important one," Kohler said. "Those little victories are important now. We are not going to make the regional tournament and it probably wasn't the season that all of us expected it to be."
Fort Hays dropped to 7-26 overall and 3-16 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. Washburn, ranked No. 8 in the country, improved to 31-4, 15-4 in conference play. The Tigers will finish their season Saturday against national power Emporia State University. Match time is 4 p.m. at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
"It would be nice to come out on Saturday and play as hard as we did today and take care of a couple little errors so that we put ourselves in a position to beat Emporia." Kohler said.
In the first set, Fort Hays took a 23-21 lead, but Washburn won the final four points and took the set. At 23-23, Tiger freshman Makayla McPhail had an attack error and Washburn senior setter Kate Hampson delivered a kill to win the set. Washburn jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and wasn't threatened. In the third set, though, Fort Hays hit .250 and rallied back from an early 11-9 deficit.
"Whether you are 100-2 and you are 2-100, they start believing, so that's what happened with them," Washburn head coach Chris Herron said. "They got in that mindset of, 'hey, we can win this.' Sometimes that is real scary sitting on that other side. You know that other team over there saying, 'hey, they believe they are going to beat you.'"
FHSU took a late lead before the Lady Blues tied the third set at 23.
"Hays was in system a lot more," Herron said. "Their serve-receive was a lot better this match than it was at our place (on Oct. 14)."
After a Washburn service error and a kill from Lady Blues' Mollie Lacy tied the match at 24, Tiger sophomore Rebecca Mausbach and senior Lilian Rezende gave Fort Hays the set victory with back-to-back kills. Kohler punctuated the victory with a sideline fist pump.
"I think we are at the point in our season where the kids know they don't have anything to lose," Kohler said. They really played relaxed. I think this is something that if we could have managed to do that all season, we would be in a better position right now. I really thought they battled hard, played some great defense tonight. (Sophomore libero) Tracie (Hileman) I thought did a heckuva job on that back line."
In the fourth set, though, Washburn pulled away to win 25-20. Ashley Shepard collected 12 kills and hit .300, while Lacy had 15 kills and hit .519. Lacy leads the country in hitting percentage at .415 and was often too quick for Fort Hays' block. In addition, Kelci Wigger tallied 10 kills and Hampson, one of the conference's top setters, had 51 sets.
"We have a lot of offensive weapons and I think we have a few more than they did. I think that's the biggest thing," Herron said.
"Lacy is a pretty amazing kid. Not many times do I have to say much to her. You coach her up in practice, does exactly what you say and you go on. That's Mollie. Very, very, very efficient."
Fort Hays had three players with double-digit kills. Rezende picked up 14 kills and hit .353, while McPhail added 11 and senior Lydia Karnopp had 10. Hileman collected 21 digs. The Tigers' .206 hitting percentage was the highest since Oct. 23 and the best against a ranked team all season.
"One of our better matches on the offensive side," Kohler said.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |