The Emporia State volleyball team opened up the MIAA – GAC crossover Thursday with a straight-sets victory over Ouachita Baptist. The #25 Lady Hornets swept the Tigers 25-19, 25-19, 25-20 in Shawnee, Okla. ESU outhit Ouachita .221 to .110 in a high error match. ESU had 19 errors to 17 for the Tigers but ESU managed 50 kills while the Tigers had just 31. ESU outaced the Tigers 6-1 in the match. Piper Bahr led two Lady Hornets in double figures with 12 kills while Lavra Krizanic added 10 with a match-high 23 digs. Delainee Dexter chipped in 13 assists and 10 digs.
Later, the #25 Lady Hornets swept the 24 Bison of Oklahoma Baptist 25-17, 25-12, 29-27. ESU was cooking on offense the entire match and .402 for the match including a blistering .514 in the first. E-State blew the second set open with a 16-4 run to take a 23-10 lead that OBU couldn’t recover from. OBU provided some resistance in the third jumping out to a 7-3 advantage early and eventually led 19-14 before E-State climbed back in it with a 5-1 run. E-State saved three set points as part of 4-0 run before faltering on their first match point. OBU had another chance to get into the fourth set at 27-26 but a Brooklyn Weaver kill kept the sweep chances alive for the Black & Gold and E-State scored the last three in a row to put it away. Bahr paced the offense again with 15 kills while Krizanic tacked on another double-double with 13 terminations and a match-high 18 digs. E-State (10-1) puts their eight-match winning streak on the line against Southern Nazarene tomorrow afternoon for the first of two Friday afternoon matches in Edmond, Okla starting at 12:30 p.m.
