On Friday, Sept. 12, Washburn volleyball swept Truman State 3-0 at Whiting Fieldhouse. Around 300 spectators were in attendance to support their team. The Ichabods (6-0) defeated Truman State (1-5) 25-15, 25-20, 25-21.

After trailing early in the first set, Washburn used a 5-1 run sparked by a kill from Keilah Rivers, sophomore outside hitter, to take a 15-11 lead and never looked back, closing the set with a 6-1 stretch. The Ichabods hit .538 as a team in the opening frame.

Sophomore outside hitter Brynne Topolski described her position on the game and the challenges of it.

“I’m on the right side and I think the most challenging part is blocking,” Topolski said. “Definitely, it’s something that I’m working on right now to get better at, and it’s tough because you have to block a majority of the ball, since a lot of like balls go out to the outside as well, a lot of the garbage balls go to the outside, so you have to work on lining up perfectly.”

Washburn jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the second set and extended the margin to double digits with back-to-back aces from Sydney Conner, senior setter. Truman State closed the gap to four, but senior middle hitter Austin Broadie sealed the set with a kill down the line.

Broadie explained about the biggest challenges of being both a student and a volleyball player.

“It is a big time commitment,” Broadie said. “Some people don’t know that … you’re pretty much sometimes, I’ll be at the school from 8am to 6pm so it’s just a lot of your days you’re busy, but it’s good, because you can be around your friends.”

Junior middle blocker Natalie Hedlund highlighted the team’s strong chemistry and preparation.

“That’s really great. We all get along super good,” Hedlund said. “We spend a lot of time outside of volleyball, so like hanging out, but on the courts, we all are really close. We do a lot of rituals. We do a dance party. We kind of listen to music and just hype each other up.”

Washburn will conclude the tournament Saturday against Newman at 10 a.m. and William Jewell at 6 p.m. To get more information about this game, you can visit the official Washburn volleyball website.

Edited by Anushma Dahal, Ojashwi Shrestha and Bidhya Sapkota