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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – No. 20 Washburn volleyball is heading to the MIAA Tournament championship match after taking down the tournament's top-seed and No. 10 nationally ranked Northwest Missouri in four sets on Friday evening.
Washburn's volleyball team advanced to Saturday's 6 p.m. MIAA Tournament championship match with a 3-1 win over top seed Northwest Missouri. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The semifinal match was a back-and-forth battle and each set was decided by two points while three of the four sets going to extra points.
No. 5 seed Washburn will face No. 2 seed and No. 12-ranked Nebraska-Kearney at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the title match.
Washburn will be looking for its first-ever MIAA tournament title after playing in four previous championship matches (2005, 2006, 2016, and 2018). The last two times Washburn was in the final it was against Nebraska-Kearney.
Washburn topped Northwest Missouri Friday by the set scores of 24-26, 25-23, 26-24, and 29-27 to improve its overall record to 23-7 and end Northwest Missouri's 12-match winning streak. The Ichabods have now won three of their last four matches, with all three victories against opponents ranked in the Top-25.
The Ichabods got out to a hot start and won six of the first seven points and led 12-6 when Northwest Missouri (24-6) slowly climbed back into the game.
The Bearcats trailed 22-20 and knotted up the score with a 3-1 run. Sophomore McMullen knocked down a kill to give the Ichabods set point, but they couldn't hold on as Northwest Missouri won three straight points to claim the opening set, 26-24.
The second set included 12 ties and five lead changes, with plenty of back-and-forth scoring.
Northwest Missouri was up, 17-14, when Washburn took its first lead since 10-7 with a run of five consecutive points.
The Bearcats tied the set at 19, 21 and 22 and went in front, 23-22, when it was the Ichabods' turn to end the set with a 3-0 mini-run and even the match at one set apiece.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Friday night's opening 10 minutes of the Lora Westling era were a little rocky, with the Washburn Unversity women's basketball team spotting Southwestern Oklahoma State an early double-digit advantage.
But the rest of the night belonged to Westling and the Ichabods
After falling behind 21-11 in the first quarter, Washburn outscored Southwestern Oklahoma 23-5 in the second quarter and never trailed again as first-year WU head coach Westling and her team started the season with a 71-55 victory in the Washburn Crossover Classsic at Lee Arena.
Former Washburn standout Lora Westling made her debut as the Ichabods' head coach in Friday's 71-55 win over Southwestern Oklahoma. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn women's basketball coach Lora Westling receives a high-five from assistant coach Will Marchino after Friday's 71-55 win over Southwestern Oklahoma, Westling's first game as the Ichabods' head coach. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"These are hard to come by in competitive collegiate basketball so we're going to enjoy that,'' Westling said. "I'm going to enjoy it with my staff for our first one together.
"I'm just really, really proud of our team, and that's what I told my players, 'If you don't stop and enjoy these moments, it's going to be a really long year,' so we'll enjoy it and then crunch through tape tonight and try to see if we can do it again tomorrow.''
The Ichabods will wrap up the Classic at 3 p.m. on Saturday against Oklahoma Baptist.
Southwestern Oklahoma (0-1) jumped out to a 10-3 lead to start the game and closed out the final 4:17 of the first quarter on an 11-5 run to take a 10-point advantage.
"It was nerves, it was a new season, a new coach and we were trying to do everything right but it was also a blind scout,'' Westling said. "Southwestern Oklahoma's playing for a brand new head coach (Jeff Zinn) and we had really no idea what they were going to do.
"We had to kind of figure out what their gameplan was so we could counter and shake off the rust and the nerves and then eventually kind of settled in.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's football team will close out the 2022 regular season on Saturday with a trip to Joplin, Mo. to face Missouri Southern in a 2 p.m. MIAA contest.
Washburn football coach Craig Schurig discusses a non-pass interference call during last Saturday's game against No. 5-ranked Pittsburg State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Craig Schurig's Ichabods, 6-4 overall and in the MIAA, have already clinched a winning regular season, but Schurig admitted that a seventh win would be a great way to end the regular season.
"Going 7-4 sounds a lot better than 6-5,'' Schurig said.
Washburn also still harbors hopes of a postseason bowl game and could help its case with a victory over the Lions.
"We want to end on a high note and then maybe we get a bowl game,'' Schurig said. "We'll be among some teams that will be looked at because if you're 7-4 in this conference you get pretty good consideration.''
After going 9-3 and making the NCAA Playoffs in 2021, the Ichabods have gone through a somewhat up and down regular season, with three of their four losses coming by between two and eight points.
"This style of team, with the seniors that we have and type of team we have, our goals were set much higher,'' Schurig said. "You were thinking that this week would be a week you've got to win to be in the playoffs for sure and it just didn't round out that way.
"Last year's team we seemed to win those closer games and this year's team we've won a few of them, but we've lost a few and that's what makes this conference so good.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The 2022-23 women's basketball season will officially begin for Washburn University and first-year coach Lora Westling this weekend as the Ichabods host the Washburn Crossover Classic Friday and Saturday.
Washburn will open the new year at 6 p.m. Friday against Southwestern Oklahoma State before wrapping up its opening weekend against Oklahoma Baptist at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
"We're really trying to get into this conference challenge focusing on us, what we need to continue to improve on and just with the mindset of having a little more urgency, understanding that now it all counts,'' Westling said.
Washburn point guard Aubree Dewey led the Ichabods with eight points in a 70-27 exhibition loss at nationally-ranked Nebraska on Oct. 30. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods fell 70-27 at No. 22 Nebraska in their lone exhibition on Oct. 30 and Westling said despite the lopsided outcome the WU staff saw a lot of things that the team can put to good use moving forward.
"We took a lot of positives out of that,'' Westling said. "Honestly, any time you can play a game like that and have film that's worth watching afterwards and you can build from that, it's worth the trip and that's what we got.
"We were able to see some things where we've been deficient and we needed to get back to work on, but most importantly we saw that our kids were willing to compete against a top 25 team. We went in with some goals and some five-minute battles and we reached a few of them. Not many, but a few of them and I was just really proud of our group for how they stepped up against one of the best teams in the country.''.
Washburn began last season against the Lady Bulldogs and the Bison in Weatherford, Okla., with the Ichabods falling to then-No. 16-ranked Southwestern State Oklahoma, 70-54, before defeating OBU in overtime, 62-50.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
On Thursday Shawnee Heights senior star Jeremiah Smith picked Nebraska to continue his track career next season ... with a little help from a former T-Bird.
Smith, a three-time state champ and No. 1 on Kansas' all-time list in the 100-meter dash, revealed his college choice in front of friends and family Thursday at Heights, picking the Huskers over Iowa Oklahoma, and then immediately signed his letter of intent to make things official.
Shawnee Heights senior Jeremiah Smith signed a track and field letter of intent with Nebraska on Saturday at Heights. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Smith follows in the footsteps of former Shawnee Heights state champ and current Nebraka standout Mikey Hoffer, an NCCA qualifier for the Huskers, and said that Hoffer was in his ear during the recruiting proces.
"He definitely was,'' Smith said. "The University of Nebraska definitely used the connection we had to their advantage, had me talking to him all the time and things like that. He was deinitely involved.''
And Smith said it was good to have somebody like Hoffer to lean on.
"It definitely was because I had like an inside view and I could ask him personal questions that I couldn't ask the coach,'' Smith said. "He's been there for four years and he's going to tell me straight. Even though he wants me to go there, he wants what's best for me so he's going to tell me the truth about what I asked.''
