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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn University women's soccer team returns to Yager Stadium this weekend for its final two home games of the regular season, facing off against Northwest Missouri State and Missouri Western in two critical MIAA contests.
The Ichabods sit in a tie for second place in the MIAA standings, six points behind Missouri Western with three games to play.
Washburn soccer will honor its seniors on Sunday before the Ichabods' 1 p.m. game against Missouri Western at Yager Stadium. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Washburn will face Northwest Missouri at 6 p.m. Friday and the Ichabods will honor 11 seniors on Senior Day before its 1 p.m. Sunday match against the Griffons.
Washburn is 10-3-2 on the 2024 season and is ranked 20th in the latest United Soccer Coaches Division II Women's National poll.
The Ichabods split their two road contests last weekend, defeating Central Missouri 1-0 last Friday before falling to Fort Hays State, 2-1, on Sunday.
Sophomore WU goalkeeper Hailey Beck is tied for second nationally with 10 shutouts, is fourth with a goals against average of 0.313 and her 0.879 save percentage is good for a tie for 14th.
Junior Belle Kennedy is tied for 29th with three game-winning goals.
Ichabod senior Khloe Schuckman has now scored in her last three games and five of Schuckman's six goals this season came in the month of October.
With her goal against Fort Hays State, Schuckman now has 75 points in her career (31 goals, 13 assists).
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By NICHOLAS GAINEY
Special to TopSports.news
The Topeka West Chargers' boys soccer season came to a close Thursday night in a 2-0 defeat to the Hays Indians in Class 5A regional championship at Hummer Sports Park.
The matchup was the second of the season between the two teams, with Hays coming out on top 2-0 on Sep. 10.
The 11th-seeded Indians earned a 2-1 win over Bishop Carroll on Monday night, while the third-seeded Chargers downed Goddard 7-0 to set up the rematch.
The teams were unable to be separated for the first 10 minutes of the contest. The Chargers survived an early scare in the fifth minute after Hays earned a corner kick, but a wide-open header from sophomore defender Brecken Otte sailed just over the crossbar.
The match would not remain scoreless for long, as the Indians took the lead in the 10th minute. Following a foul, Ivan Maldonado launched a free kick into the box, where senior Cooper Johnson was waiting to put a right-footed shot into the Charger net.
The situation would go from bad to worse for Topeka West, which gave up possession shortly after the kickoff and were forced to defend an attack from Hays. Just 19 seconds after assisting on his team’s first goal, Maldonado scored the Indians’ second goal to put the visitors in control.
Hays looked to stay aggressive, once again repelling the Charger attack and taking the ball into the hosts’ half of the pitch. The Indians nearly had a third goal in three minutes, but a shot by Henry Speno off a volley hit the crossbar before being corralled by West goalkeeper Gage Kindred-Noragon.
After the onslaught of pressure by the Hays attack, the Chargers settled in and held possession for longer periods of time. Despite the improved offense, West was unable to claw back into the contest, entering halftime with a two-goal deficit.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 3 West seed Washburn Rural took control of Thursday's Class 6A regional soccer final with two goals in the opening seven minutes on the way to a 3-0 win over No. 11 Free State at McElroy Field.
Washburn Rural soccer celebrates its Class 6A regional championship after Thursday's 3-0 win over Free State. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior Matthew Houser (9) scored two goals in the first seven minutes to power Washburn Rural to a 3-0 win over Free State in Thursday's Class 6A regional final. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior Matthew Houser scored twice within a span of a minute and 14 seconds at the 34:17 and 33:03 mark of the first half and junior Brody Grogan added a final goal with 22:56 left in the second half as the 13-2-3 Junior Blues advanced to next Monday's state quarterfinals.
Sophomore Brodye Kocher-Munoz was credited with a pair of assists for the Junior Blues while junior Miles Cook picked up the shutout in goal as the Junior Blues dominated the game from start to finish.
Rural outscored its two regional foes by an 11-0 margin after opening postseason with an 8-0 win over Maize on Monday.
"I just told them, I thought our two performances this week are some of the best stuff we've done all year and that's obviouly what you want,'' Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "All the little things we've been talking about kind of came to fruition the first 10 minutes. We've always been a set play team and we ran everything perfect (early). We earned four corners in the first five minutes and scored on a couple and really ran them right against a good team and a good goalkeeper (Yusef Iskandrani).
"A good start. If you get a lead, any anxiety you have you feel like you can kind of take a deep breath and we were able to relax. They were a good team, that was a good performance for us.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball opened its 2024-25 season on Wednesday night with an 89-36 exhibition road loss to No. 13-ranked Kansas State at Bramlage Coliseum.
Washburn guard Amaya Davison scored six points for the Ichabods in Wednesday's 89-36 exhibition loss to Kansas State. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods will play their final exhibition game of the season on Friday at Kansas (6:30 p.m. tipoff).
After the Wildcats scored the first six points of the game Payton Sterk opened up the scoring for Washburn with a 3-pointer at the 8:48 mark of the first quarter.
Kansas State pushed the lead to double digits with hot shooting from deep early on.
The Ichabods held KSU scoreless over the final two and a half minutes of the quarter, going on a 4-0 run to close the quarter with three points by Brooke Gomez.
The Wildcats opened the second quarter with a quick run that made the WU deficit 24 points.
Amaya Davison was able to score six points in a row for Washburn, first with a 3-pointer, followed by a steal and fast break old-fashioned 3-point play. Turnovers kept Washburn from cutting into the lead further with 17 giveaways in the first half as Kansas State went into the break leading 40-19.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After falling to Missouri Western in a hard-fought five-set loss in their first meeting of the season, the Washburn Ichabods rolled to a 3-0 sweep over the No. 23-ranked Griffons Wednesday night in Lee Arena.
The entire Washburn volleyball team celebrates Wednesday's 3-0 MIAA sweep over Missouri Western after recording the final point. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn avenged an earlier loss for the second straight night, with the Ichabods sweeping Northwest Missouri on Tuesday.
"Obviously you feel good about that and as a coach you're happy,'' Washburn coach Chris Herron said. "We're hot right now. We feel good about ourselves, they like each other, everybody's on the same page, the focus is there and the intensity level is really what's there more than anything else.
"In basketball they call it 50-50 balls. Well we have 50-50 balls in volleyball and it's called transition and if you can win the transition balls that's what wins matches and that's what I thought we did tonight.''
With Wednesday's win the Ichabods improved to 18-4 overall and 9-3 in the MIAA while surpassing their win total from the 2023 campaign.
The Ichabods led from start to finish in the opening set for a 25-21 victory before rallying from seven points down to take a 25-23 second-set win and closing out the sweep with a 25-20 win in the third set.
Jalyn Stevenson and Alex Dvorak each had four kills for the Ichabods in the first set and battled back from a 16-9 deficit to take a 22-19 lead in the second set on a kill from Emery Keebaugh and closed out the win with a block.
Washburn closed out the match in a third set that saw the Ichabods break a 9-9 tie before using a 10-4 run to pull away from Missouri Western (18-5, 8-3).
The Griffons came back with a 6-0 run of their own to tie the score at 19-19 but Missouri Western's ensuing service ace was wiped off the board due to a successful WU challenge and the Ichabods outscored Missouri Western 5-1 to end the match.
