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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University senior volleyball All-American Faith Rottinghaus was the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2021 NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship.
Rottinghaus, majoring in kinesiology, currently carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average and becomes the first Washburn student-athlete to win the prestigious award. Rottinghaus, a Shawnee Heights graduate, was presented with the award prior toWashburn's win in Thursday's national quarterfinal match in Tampa, Fla.
"I think it means a lot,'' Rottinghaus said. "I'm very proud of it just because I work really hard in the classroom and on the court.
"I would stress to everybody, don't let your lives become too much of a distraction and really focus on what you want to have.''
Washburn volleyball All-American Faith Rottinghaus, a Shawnee Heights graduate, received a prestigious academic honor Thursday during the NCAA Volleyball Championships. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The libero from Berryton has had an incredible career that includes two CoSIDA Academic All-America awards, an AVCA All-America second team selection, a D2CCA All-America first team selection, three all-MIAA first team honors, and a five-time MIAA Academic Excellence award winner. She is also the program's all-time career leader in digs with 2,607.
The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers.
The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.
Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above who have participated in their sport for at least two years with their school. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed. For more information on the Elite 90 award winners, log on to https://www.ncaa.com/elite-90.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The one at a time concept has worked just fine for the Washburn University volleyball team so far, and with the Ichabods now just two wins away from a national championship, they don't plan to change that approach now.
The No. 3-seeded Ichabods dispatched No. 6 West Texas A&M 3-1 in Thursday's opening NCAA Division II tournament quarterfinal at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Fla., advancing to Friday's 4 p.m. national semifinal to face the winner of Thursday's later quarterfinal match between No. 2 seed Western Washington and No. 7 Daemen.
Washburn celebrates a kill from freshman Jalyn Stevenson (10) during Thursday's 3-1 quarterfinal win over West Texas A&M in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. [Photo courtesy of Joy Smith/Washburn Athletics]
"I think we're going to prepare the exact same way that we always do,'' Washburn senior libero Faith Rottinghaus said about the semifinal match. "It is a lot about our side and that's the biggest thing is we can only control what's on our side of the net.
"We'll watch (the opponent) and we'll do some scouting, but (when) we play tomorrow all we can control is our side of the net and each play that we do.''
Senior middle hitter Allison Maxwell agreed.
"I think ultimately we just take every play one ball at a time and that's what weve been emphasizing this whole time,'' Maxwell said.
Washburn, fresh off winning the Central Region championship, took a 25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21 decision over the Lady Buffs, improving to 30-5 on the season.
"I thought we played very hard and obviously stayed focused,'' Washburn coach Chris Herron said. "Our offense was diverse enough to keep them guessing in what we might do, so I'm really excited for them.''
The Ichabods got their day off to a hard-earned win in Set 1, which included seven ties before WU scored two straight points to take an 18-16 lead.
WU eventually went in front 22-17 with senior Allison Sadler serving, but West Texas rallied to within 22-21 before the Ichabods regained control on kills from seniors Kelsey Gordon and Genna Berg to put Washburn up 24-21. Then, after a point from the Buffs, Maxwell ended the set with a kill.
Washburn senior Allison Maxwell spikes the ball during Thursday's NCAA quarterfinal match in Tampa, Fla. [Photo courtesy of Joy Smith/Washburn Athletics]
Washburn never trailed in the second set after opening up early 3-0, 4-1 and 6-2 leads.
West Texas fought back to knot the set at 8-8 but Washburn answered with three straight points, including kills from Sydney Fitzgibbons and Jalyn Stevenson.
Washburn later used a 5-1 run to go up 17-11 and went in command 19-12 on a service ace Taylor Antonowich.
The Buffs got no closer than four points the rest of the set before Maxwell and Berg finished off the six-point win with kills.
West Texas A&M bounced back to extend the match with a 25-21 third-set victory, taking control of the set with four straight points to take a 22-19 lead. WU got as close as 23-21before West Texas closed out the win with two straight points.
Herron said Washburn's goal between sets was to forget about the loss and the Ichabods were able to maintain control throughout the match-clinching Set 4 win.
"I just told them that it was over,'' Herron said. "Every point is important and as soon as that point is over it's no longer important because there's nothing you can do about the last point. It's the same thing with a set, match, whatever. It's over, it's history now so we just decided, 'That one's over with, let's go to the next one.''
"I think the biggest thing is we're confident enough in each other that we know if we go out there and play our best game of volleyball we're not going to be disappointed in ourselves no matter the outsome,'' said Rottinghaus, a former state champion at Shawnee Heights.
MATCH RESULTS
Washburn def. West Texas A&M, 25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's basketball teams hit the road for the first time in MIAA play, facing Central Oklahoma in 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. contests Thursday.
The Ichabod men will be looking to climb above .500 in the MIAA and overall, with Washburn currently 4-4 overall and 1-1 in the MIAA.
Washburn will be facing a Centralk Oklahoma men's team that is 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
The Ichabods are coming off a 79-77 win over Nebraska-Kearney while the Bronchos are coming off a 79-60 road win over Pittsburg State.
Washburn junior Jalen Lewis drives the ball earlier this season against Fort Hays State. Lewis leads the Ichabods with a 13.3 scoring average. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Jalen Lewis leads Washburn with a 13.3 scoring average and has hit 14 3-pointers while freshman Michael Keegan averages 12.4 points and a team-high five rebounds per game.
Sophomore Connor Deffebaugh is averaging 9.8 points and a team-high 2.1 assists and hit the game-winning shot in last Saturday's win over Nebraska-Kearney.
Deffebaugh had a career-high 19 points against UNK while Keegan recorded a career-high 18 points.
Isaiah Wade leads four players in double figures for Central Oklahoma with an 18-point average and also averages seven rebounds.
Camryn Givens averages 15.3 points and 6.4 rebounds while Jaden Wells averages 12.3 points and Callen Haydon 12.1 points.
The Washburn women's basketball team is 1-6 overall and 0-2 in the MIAA on the season and will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak after falling to No. 21 Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday, 49-43.
Central Oklahoma is 5-3 and split the conference-opening week, falling to Missouri Southern, 81-74, before rolling to a 96-76 victory at Pittsburg State.
Senior Hunter Bentley averages a team-high 10.1 points for Washburn and averages 3.7 rebounds.
Mackenzie Gamble averages 7.4 points and has hit at least one 3-pointer in every game this season to give her a season total of 13 treys.
Central Oklahoma is led by Kelsey Johnson, who has already won the MIAA Player of the Week award twice this season and averages a double-double with 19.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game..
Alayzha Knapp averages 10.0 points and 4.1 rebounds for the Bronchos.
Washburn will continue its road trip with a women's/men's twinbill at Newman on Saturday.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights' boys basketball team didn't have a memorable shooting night, particularly from 3-point range, and the T-Birds had trouble keeping Topeka High off the boards at times Wednesday night.
But Ken Darting's T-Birds got enough big plays from enough players to post a 62-54 non-league win at Topeka High, improving to 2-0 on the season.
"We had kids that came in and hit a three or got a big rebound,'' Darting said. "We had freshmen and sophomores playing with a four-point lead and two minutes to go in the game.
"This is a big step for everybody and everybody was picking up everybody that was having a bad game. That's what makes it so fun.''
Shawnee Heights senior Nathan Pewe (1) and the T-Birds celebrate Wednesday's 62-54 win at Topeka High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Shawnee Heights hit just two of 16 3-point attempts on the night and were out-rebounded, 30-23, but the T-Birds got at least eight points from five different players, including multiple underclassmen in the win.
Topeka High, which fell to 0-3, jumped out in front 7-1, 8-2, 10-4 and 12-6 out of the gate, but 6-foot-2 sophomore Jayden Holly gave Shawnee Heights a huge lift off the bench, scoring eight points in the first quarter, including a shot at the buzzer to cut the Trojans' lead to 15-14 at the end of the quarter.
Heights rallied to take a 24-17 advantage with 5:14 left in the first half, but Topeka High was still within four points (31-27) at halftime.
After falling behind by seven early in the third quarter Topeka High battled back to tie the game at 36 with 4:52 left in the third quarter and was within a point at the start of the fourth quarter after a 3-pointer from sophomore Isaiah Lyons.
Sophomore BJ Canady put High in front 47-46 at the start of the fourth quarter but a huge 3-pointer off the bench from sophomore Jayden Moore put the T-Birds back in front, 49-47.
Lyons' fourth 3-pointer gave the Trojans a 50-49 advantage with five minutes remaining, but Shawnee Heights outscored High 13-4 the rest of the way to build its biggest lead of the night.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Topeka High football coach Carlos Kelly told TopSports.news after a 28-20 win over Emporia back in September, “Tylan Alejos needs to be Tylan Alejos and magic will happen.”
That ended up being the truth.
The Topeka High senior surpassed 1,300 rushing yards on the year and had 1,605 all-purpose yards while finding his way into the end zone 18 times.
His statistical and self-effort earned him first-team All-Centennial League honors as a running back and honorable mention at defensive back. He also cracked the TopSports.news Top 22 list.
“Pretty cool for me and my team,'' Alejoas said. "Late nights, hard work and the constant grind paid off. I’m glad that I was able to earn these awards for my team.''
Topeka High senior Tylan Alejos (7) is congratulated after scoring a touchdown against Highland Park during his senior football season. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka High has had its fair share of historical running backs in the last decade, most notably Ky Thomas.
Thomas ran for 7,703 rushing yards and 95 touchdowns in his career and is now the leading rusher for Minnesota. The Gatorade Athlete of the Year in Kansas created a path for greatness for Topeka High’s future backfield.
“He set the blueprint down,'' Alejos said. "I pick and choose what I could follow from him. He’s one of the greatest to ever do it. He taught me a lot on how to be a great player.''
