The Hornets opened the scoring in the first set, but WT bounced back with a 6-0 run to take a 6-1 lead, which forced ESU to take a quick timeout. The Lady Buffs then built a 9-4 lead before ESU put up a mini three-point run to close the gap. #Stormi Lancaster# then stopped the run with her kill to the wide side to make it a 10-7 game. WT went back up by five points at 15-10 on an ESU attacking error, but the Hornets responded with a kill from Jordan Lockwood to make it 15-11. The Lady Buffs then took a six-point lead to go up 20-14 following the blocks of Lancaster and #Erin Dougherty#, but the Hornets put together a 3-0 run to cut the lead down to 20-17 and forcing WT to take its first timeout. ESU came out of the timeout though scoring four of the next six points to pull within of the Lady Buffs at 22-21. WT was able to hang on though, finishing the set with a 3-1 run, and #Ashley Davis#’ kill to the back corner sealed the first set for WT, 25-22.
The Hornets jumped out 2-0 in the second set and Dougherty stopped the bleeding with her kill, but ESU went on to score four of the next five points to take a 6-2 lead and force WT to take a timeout. The Hornets then pushed their lead to 9-3 on a kill from Brianne Boner before WT attacked back with two straight points to make it 9-5, but ESU followed it up with a 3-0 run to take a 12-5 advantage. The Lady Buffs bounced back with a 4-0 run which began with a kill from back-up setter #Robin Marsala# and ended with a kill from Davis to make it a 12-9 game. ESU then went up 15-10 on a kill from Ting Liu, but WT scrapped their way back to a one-point deficit at 16-17 following a kill from #Haleigh Cearley#. The Hornets scored the next four points to go up 21-16 and WT fought back to get within three points at 23-20, but ESU collected kills from Paige Vanderpool and Katelyn Kaiser to put the set away 25-20.
The Lady Buffs fell behind 4-2, but were then able to take their first lead at 5-4 on a kill from Cearley. WT then went up 8-8 on a kill from Thedford, but ESU came back to tie the set with a short 2-0 burst. Both teams proceeded to trade points up until the 10-10 mark when WT went on a 4-0 run to go up 14-10. The Lady Buffs built a 19-15 lead on another kill from Cearley, but ESU stormed back to tie the set 19-19 and then took the lead on a kill from Vanderpool. WT then found themselves down 21-19 and was forced to take a timeout to stop the ESU run. The Hornets wouldn’t stop though as they finished out the set with a 10-2 run and take the set 25-21 to go up 2-1.
WT took an early 2-0 lead behind a kill from Thedford and a service ace from Dougherty, but ESU came back and eventually tied the set at 3-3 on a Lady Buffs’ ball-handling error. WT then went back on top 5-3, but ESU again responded with a 3-0 run to go up 6-5 before Davis’ back-row kill tied the set at 6-6. Four points later, WT took a 10-6 lead, forcing ESU to take its first timeout of the set. The Hornets came out of the time out taking the next two points before WT could stop the run, but ESU stayed within the Lady Buffs and tied the match at 13-13 on a kill from Kately Schmidtberger. Dupree then connected on a kill which sparked a 4-0 run as the Lady Buffs took a 17-13 lead and forced ESU to take its final timeout. The Hornets came out of this timeout scoring the next two points, but #Keidra Williams stopped the run with a kill down the middle of the court, making it an 18-15 game. WT went up 22-19 on a kill from Thedford, but a service error gave the Hornets a side-out and a deficit of just two points, 22-20. WT went up set point at 24-22 on a kill from Williams but ESU battled back to tie it at 24-24 and then went up match point at 25-24on Boner’s kill. Following a pair of timeouts from WT, ESU ended the match on an attacking error by the Lady Buffs to take the set 26-24 and the match 3-1.
Cearley and Williams led the Lady Buffs with 11 kills each on the evening and Thedford followed with nine. Thedford did finish leading the team with 29 digs and #Lauren Beville# followed with 20. Dupree led the team with 31 assists and #Teresa Dunn# followed with 18.
Boner led all players with 22 kills on in the match and Liu tallied a match-high 40 assists. Megan Schwartz led both the Hornets and the match with 31 digs.
The Lady Buffs held ESU to just .188 hitting on the night, but hit just .140 themselves. WT had 8.0 team blocks, led by Williams’ five total blocks, but ESU finished up with 11.0 team blocks led by Kaiser who finished up with seven blocks on the night.
The Lady Buffs end their season at 27-9 and drop their first match of the NCAA playoffs for just the seventh time in school history. The Hornets improved to 23-9 overall and will face the winner between #1 Central Missouri and #8 St. Mary’s.
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