ESU drops match to Pitt State; hurts title chances
By C.J. Moore (Contact)
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Arica Shepard searched for an explanation and finally came to a conclusion that described this particular loss perfectly.
“I don’t know,” Shepard said. “I’m starting to wonder what we’re doing sometimes. I don’t know.”
That about sums up Emporia State’s losses this season, including Friday night’s 3-1 loss to Pittsburg State. It’s tough to explain what happens to such a dominant team such as the seventh-ranked Hornets, but several different times this season a sure-win has turned into an unexplainable loss.
This loss goes in the collapse category, along with the loss to West Texas A&M earlier this season. The Hornets were ahead 24-19 in the opening set, on their way to an easy opening set win, but several errors and some confusion led to a comeback win for Pittsburg State, 27-25.
“Whenever we drop the first game, it seems like we let go,” Shepard said. “We start I guess not believing in ourselves.”
There’s proof to Shepard’s theory. The Hornets lost the first set at Central Missouri and again at home against Truman, both nights when the Hornets looked to be playing in a haze.
Whether it was the Hornets losing their faith or another kind of mental block, the first-set loss gave the momentum to Pitt State and proved costly to the Hornets’ chances of winning an MIAA title.
“That’s what really sucks,” Shepard said. “Unless Central does some self-destruction, I don’t know if our chances are great.”
Unlike the Central Missouri and Truman losses, the Hornets at least had some positives. They showed some fight, rallying to win the second set 25-20. They also got a career night from Brittney Miller, who had a career-best 25 kills, the second straight match she’s set a new personal-best kills record.
Shepard also had a solid night, finishing with 15 kills, but the Gorillas’ best outside hitters also had big games. Pamela Cartagena finished with 20 kills and ESU struggled with her attacks coming from all over the court and at different angles. Corrinne Stringer finished with 17 kills, and Molly Bergkamp added 10 kills.
“Tonight they relied on the two outsides,” Xu said. “When we won there, they still relied on their two outsides, but we stopped them. Tonight we couldn’t stop them on the net, and that’s a battle we lost.”
The Hornets also suffered from a lack of communication. The ball fell between two ESU players on several different occasions, and the Hornets also ran into each other a couple times.
“I don’t know what was going on there,” Shepard said. “It was just kind of mental errors I guess. We usually don’t have a problem with that so much. I don’t know if people weren’t talking as much as we should be doing or what was going on with us. I was surprised.”
The Gorillas took advantage of the mistakes and never panicked, even when the Hornets made a run. After scoring four straight points to tie the fourth set at 14, Pitt State (22-9, 12-5 MIAA) took a time out and then scored four straight points to take the lead again, a key stretch that put the match away.
“They came here fighting for their chance to get into Regional,” Xu said. “That’s the kind of intensity, compare that to us, we don’t have that. They wanted it more tonight.”
Emporia State (26-4, 13-3) gets a chance to bounce back tonight against Missouri Southern. With four matches left in the MIAA, they can get their momentum back going into the postseason, but with only two matches left for Central Missouri, which only has two MIAA losses, a MIAA championship repeat might be out of the question.
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