WU volleyball sweeps Western, moves to 15-0

Eric Smith

The end result was the same as it had been all year. However, Saturday afternoon for the Washburn Lady Blues volleyball team, the win didn’t come as easily.

The Lady Blues swept the Missouri Western Griffons 3-0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-11), but the 15th win for Washburn came with some lessons.

“Offensively we were very inconsistent,” said Chris Herron, head coach. “We didn’t hit the ball consistently, we made a lot of errors. I thought we cut them down some in game two and a lot in game three but I just think offensively, we didn’t do a good job. That’s as poor job offensively as we’ve done all year.”

The first game was close the entire way with the biggest lead for Washburn coming at 4-1. Late in the opening set, Western took a 23-22 lead with a service ace that spurred a timeout from Herron. Herron said the timeout was called mainly for him to get some stuff off his chest more than to provide information to the team. Whatever it did, the team never looked back as they scored three straight points to win the first game and eventually the match.

“We just started to talk as a team and be more aggressive and realize that we needed to have more intensity on the court,” said Ashley Shepard, junior.

The Lady Blues never trailed in the second game and after a 4-4 tie in the third, Washburn rolled.

Washburn is now 15-0 overall and 3-0 in conference having lost only two sets all season. They next play Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Omaha. They’ll be back in home to face Central Missouri at 7 p.m. Friday in Lee Arena.