#1 Emory eliminates defending champion WashU

Emory 3, Washington 1 After a slow start, No. 1 Emory hammered its way to a four-set win over No. 3 Washington. Set scores were 18-25, 29-27, 25-21, 25-20. It’s the second Emory win over the defending champion in three tries this season and snaps WashU’s 33-match home winning streak.

There was little resistance at the net when both teams were in system in Set 1. Washington was in system more often than Emory in the opener because of WashU’s superior service pressure. The runs came when EU started its offense 10 feet from the net. Is there anything left to say about WashU All-America libero Kelly Pang? Let’s just all agree that Pang is the best in the nation and leave it at that. While there wasn’t much happening at the net on defense, both back rows were on fire early, highlighted by Pang’s superlative digging, which gave Bears All-America setter Marilee Fisher several hitting options. WU freshman Tessa Blood’s outside hitting was key in the first set. EU was running its patented right-side slides and was bludgeoning attempts from the left, but Blood, Drew Hargrave and Meghan Byrne from WashU varied their shots to great effect.

The Emory block punched the clock a little late, and the Eagles started to get touches in Set 2. EU opened up a nice early lead that the hitters coughed up with unforced errors. Down 20-18, WashU’s block and, guess who (Pang, of course), led the charge for a 22-21 lead. Tied several times late, neither team could close out the set for a while due to service errors, but EU’s Breanah Bourque found a hitting line-like free middle net on a WashU defensive breakdown and scorched the set winner down the middle for a 29-27 win.

Sloppy play on both sides early in Set 3 allowed both teams to stay within a point or two of each other. Hitting and service errors, loose passing, back row sieves and shaky setting were not much of a problem since both teams were guilty of it. WashU continued its poor play while Emory tightened things up and played very well in the latter portion of the set on its way to a 17-kill, two attack error showing. EU’s Ali Wright came up with a key wheat-among-the-chaff effort with a key solo block to put the Eagles up 21-18, and EU handled it from there.

Emory’s receive was on point in Set 4, beating WashU at its own ball-control game. For the Bears to win, they had to be the better passing team. That wasn’t the case. If the EU blocking and back row are also going like they were late, the top-ranked team is hard to stop. The Eagles were bombing away. The Bears simply couldn’t pop up every ball, but they almost did. Not to be overshadowed by her All-America counterpart, Emory libero Molly Landers was fantastic in the clinching set. But the stars of Set 4 and the match were two EU All-Americans, setter Natalie Schonefeld and middle Breanah Bourque, who recorded the clinching kill.

EU had a whopping 69 kills against WashU’s weakness, the block. Bourque led four Eagles in double-figure kills with a match-high 24 kills on .435 hitting while Schonefeld had 56 assists, 13 digs and seven kills. Those two and Alena Ransom (10K, 1E, 24A) were great all night. The Eagles don’t often get credit for their passing game, but a good serving team like Washington only aced them three times. Anyone who saw the EU receive in the last two sets knows that it can be yet another strength to this well-rounded team.

Pang led all players with 30 digs in another masterful performance for the Bears. Blood led three WashU players in double figures with 15 kills. Fisher had 48 assists but was also guilty of six errors.

I’m convinced that if you don’t have much of a block, you can’t beat Emory. With apologies to Christopher Newport, WashU may be the best digging team in the country. If the Bears can’t stick around with the dig, I’m not sure any team can. The Bears block was decent, but it had to be much, much better than it was.

The good news for those of us without a rooting interest other than seeing a good match, Calvin can potentially throw a good block at Emory on Monday. I repeat, Monday, because Calvin does not play on Sundays and was granted an NCAA waiver to honor that request. The new start time for the championship match is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST.

-Ricky Nelson