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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn Ichabod women's soccer team tied No. 25-ranked Maryville 1-1 in Friday's season-opener in St. Louis, Mo., forging the tie on freshman Leah Henke's first collegiate goal in the 89th minute with seconds remaining.
Leah Henke
"I thought our performance was a good first step today,'' Washburn coach Davy Phillips said. "I loved how resilient and steadfast the team stayed through some adversity.
"We will continue to work on how to turn good performances into results, but I'm so proud of this team for how they played today to get a point on the road vs a Top 25 team."
Gina Catanzaro scored in the 37th minute to give Maryville the lead late in the first half.
Washburn recorded three first-half shots, with one being on goal, while WU goalkeeper Alli Harrington recorded two saves in the first half.
The Ichabods started the second half strong, recording two shots in the first minute of the half, with one being put on goal by freshman forward Kate Hinck.
Maryville received a red card in the 56th minute and finished the match with 10 players. After the red card, Washburn would take control of the game with the extra player on the field, leading to Henke's game-tying goal.
Washburn recorded 11 shots, with five on goal.
Eight freshmen made their Washburn debuts in the game.
Washburn will play again in the St. Louis area on Saturday afternoon as they take on Missouri-St. Louis at 12 p.m.
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By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Topeka High opened the 2024 football season against Wichita West and won, 52-19.
The 2025 opener was a duplicate of dominance from the Trojans, who dismantled the Pioneers once again, 40-14 on Thursday night at Hummer Sports Park.
Senior quarterback Zane Smith had a hand in three touchdowns in Thursday's 40-14 Topeka High win over Wichita West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka High possessed the ball six times in the first half and scored on their first four possessions and led 27-0 at halftime. The Trojans didn’t give up much of anything to Wichita West, allowing just two pass completions, recovering a fumble, posting two sacks and recovering a muffed punt in that first half alone.
Trojan coach Jason Filbeck said last season when they played Wichita West, they led early with some broken plays and he wanted to change the script this year.
“We wanted to come out here and operate clean and actually score with the plays we actually practiced,” Filbeck said. “Tonight was clean. Halftime killed us. We were rolling and halftime just stopped that momentum.”
Filbeck was excited to see how his offense moved the ball in that first half and kept that up-tempo going. He was pleased to see senior quarterback Zane Smith’s efforts, with Smith having a hand in three touchdowns, two on the ground and one passing.
“He’s (Smith) an athlete,” Filbeck said. “He needs to stop trying and get hit. I keep telling him, 'It's okay to get out of bounds after you get your gain. He did a good job for the most part. There were a couple of plays where he maybe could’ve thrown it away but he’s a high school quarterback, he did a good job.”
Smith had 54 yards on the ground, including a 33-yard score which put High up 40-8 in the fourth quarter. He completed 7 of 12 passes for 121 yards and a 9-yard touchdown toss to Courtney Sanders to put the Trojans up 20-0 in the first quarter.
“It felt great to get back out there,” Smith said. “Senior year, last first game, we dominated but we have a lot of stuff to fix and we just have to go week by week and just keep playing.
“All week we were talking about the holes in the (Wichita West) defense and we hit them all night.”
Sanders left the game in the second quarter with what appeared to be a leg injury and did not return to the game.
Sophomore Ricardo Dowd had 86 total yards in Thursday's 40-14 Topeka High win over Wichita West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Ricardo Dowd scored two touchdowns on the ground in the first half and finished with 86 total yards. Even Fred Stayhorn got in on the action, scoring a 20-yard TD and finishing with 40 total yards.
Smith went on to say about Dowd that he’s a ‘dog’ and he’s happy for his success and they knew what they were going to get coming off Dowd's injury last season. As for Dowd himself, he credited his offensive line.
“It was just the team and they were going out there and blocking, doing their assignments, and I couldn’t have done what I did without them,” Dowd said.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Coming off a three-goal loss, Topeka High soccer delivered a strong bounce-back peformance Thursday at Hayden, scoring three goals in the final 16:10 to take a 4-1 Centennial League victory.
Topeka High junior John Martinez (8) scored two goals in the Trojans' 4-1 soccer win over Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"It's a bounce back as far as the win goes,'' said Trojan coach Derek Snook, whose team was coming off a 4-1 loss to Lawrence. "Obviously playing on grass instead of turf it slows things down, so we got out of sorts a little bit, but with the way we played coming through and to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting, we had our opportunities and it's looking good.
"The boys are starting to talk about what they see, so that's a good thing.''
Junior John Martinez scored a pair of goals for the 2-1 Trojans, who also got goals from seniors Noah Storrer and Eric McKinley.
Senior Aiden Roberts (4) scored Hayden's lone goal in Thursday's 4-1 soccer loss to Topeka High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Martinez scored the lone goal of the first half at the 11:16 mark but Hayden (0-2) needed just 1:01 into the second half to knot the score at 1-1 on a goal from senior Aiden Roberts.
Topeka High junior John Martinez (8) is congratulated by his teammates after scoring his second goal in the Trojans' 4-1 soccer win over Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The score remained deadlocked for nearly 23 minutes before Martinez scored what proved to be the game-winning goal for the Trojans.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's soccer, the two-time defending MIAA regular-season champion, will kick off its 2025 season at 4 p.m. Thursday at No. 25-ranked Maryville, Mo.
Davy Phillips will kick off his ninth season at Washburn with a Thursday road game at Maryville. [File photo/TSN]
Coach Davy Phillips is starting his ninth season at Washburn, with the Ichabods coming off a 14-4-3 season with a MIAA record of 10-1-1 while advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.
The Ichabods return 17 players from last season's roster and added 12 newcomers, 11 of whom are freshmen.
"I'm eager to see this year's group compete and become battle-tested,'' Phillips said. "We have intentionally put together the toughest non-conference schedule in my time here, and I'm excited for the journey it will provide us to prepare for our incredibly demanding MIAA schedule.
"We have a really entertaining and hungry group, and I'm looking forward to seeing who we can become in the 2025 season."
Former Washburn Rural star Belle Kennedy returns for her senior soccer season at Washburn after earning All-MIAA first-team recognition the past two seasons. [File photo/TSN]
A top returner for the Ichabods is senior midfielder Belle Kennedy, a former Washburn Rural star who has earned back-to-back All-MIAA first-team honors. Kennedy scored three goals with one assist as a junior.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University will begin its 56th season of volleyball on Friday and Saturday at the Oredigger Volleyball Classic in Golden, Colo., with four matches over two days.
The Ichabods will open the tournament on Friday with an 11 a.m. MST match against Colorado Christian before taking on South Dakota Mines at 4 p.m. MST.
In Day 2 of the tournament on Saturday Washburn will face Davenport at 10 a.m. MST and Valdosta State at 2 p.m. MST.
Senior setter Sydney Conner is one of 14 returners for Washburn volleyball, which went 21-8 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2024. [File photo/TSN],
"We're really excited,'' said Ichabod senior setter Sydney Conner, who was second on the team with 478 assists last year and is third among returners with 224 digs. "We've been practicing for two or three weeks, really great practices, and playing each other a lot, so we're really excited to get the regular season started.''
The Ichabods enter 2025 after going 21-8 overall a season ago, including an 11-5 record inside the MIAA.
WU's season ended with a 3-2 NCAA Central Region semifinal loss to No. 6 nationally-ranked Central Oklahoma.
Washburn is ranked No. 22 in the preseason American Volleyball Coaches Association poll with 210 points. The Ichabods were ranked No. 24 to finish the 2024 season.
"One of coach's things he's been telling us is punch first,'' said Conner, a Kearney, Neb. native who ranks No. 14 on Washburn's career assist list with 1,523. "So when you play another team you want to be the first to punch, the first to get on top, so that's something we've been focusing on in practice.
"We're going to miss Jalyn (Stevenson, three-time All-MIAA pick) a lot, but we return a lot of people with experience, so we're looking forward to it.''
This weekend's seven-team tournament is hosted by Colorado School of Mines in Lockridge Arena. In addition to the four Ichabod opponents and the host Orediggers, Grand Valley State is the seventh team in the tournament.
The Ichabods were picked to finish third in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll with 98 total points.
Washburn returns 14 letter-winners from a season ago.
Senior Alex Dvorak headlines the WU returners after earning AVCA All-America honorable mention honors in 2024. Dvorak is second among returners with 240 kills while leading the team last year with a .364 hitting percentage.
On the defensive end Dvorak returns a team and conference-high 150 blocks. Last season the Kansas City, Mo. native played in all 29 matches and delivered eight matches with seven or more blocks.
Austin Broadie returns with the most experience in the Ichabod program, going into her fifth year. She received All-MIAA honorable mention a season ago and had the most kills among all returners with 248. Broadie hit .257 on the year across all 29 matches and added 68 blocks. The Burns native registered nine matches with double-digit kills.
Corinna McMullen will return to control the Ichabod offense for a fourth year at setter after leading the team with 706 assists a season ago. The Bucyrus native also served up a team-high 42 aces while adding 265 digs, good for second among returners. The All-MIAA second-team selection played in all 29 matches and had eight with 30 or more assists.
Junior Taylor Rottinghaus will once again roam the back row for Washburn after being named an All-MIAA second-team selection after leading the team with 569 digs and playing all 29 matches. She carried a .96 reception percentage while also adding 29 aces, second most among returners, and 84 assists. The Shawnee Heights product had five matches with 25-plus digs.
Bella Limback returns to Washburn for her senior season after starting all 29 matches as a junior and earning All-MIAA honorable mention. She returns the third most kills on the team with 183 a season ago while hitting .345, second best on the squad. At the net the Waverly, Mo. native registered 99 blocks, second most on the Ichabods.
Eight new players will suit up for Ichabod volleyball in 2025 with five freshmen and three more newcomers joining the program.
Herron is in his 24th season at the helm of the Ichabod volleyball program with a career record of 624-140 at Washburn.
Herron has led the Ichabod to 18 NCAA Tournament appearances and six combined MIAA titles (five regular season and one tournament). He has been named MIAA Coach of the Year four times and led the Ichabods to the NCAA National Championship match in 2021.
Colorado Christian opens the 2025 season after going 19-11 in 2024 with a 9-5 mark inside the RMAC. The Cougars qualified for the NCAA Tournament, falling in the regional quarterfinal round.
Renee Phillips returns for Colorado Christian after finishing second on the team with 280 kills (2.80 per set) while starting all 30 matches and hitting .344. She made 83 blocks on the defensive end and served 21 aces. She was 10th in the RMAC in total blocks.
South Dakota Mines begins 2025 after posting an 18-9 record in 2024 along with a 11-3 mark in the RMAC.
Ivy Vindivich returns for the Hardrockers after finishing third on the team in kills last season with 224 and hitting .173.
Hannah Benes paced South Dakota Mines with 500 digs a season ago and also paced the team with 55 aces while adding 124 assists.
Davenport turns the page to 2025 after going 10-19 in 2024 along with a 6-11 GLIAC record.
After leading the team with 354 kills a season ago Abby Alan returns. She played and started in all 29 matches while adding 34 aces and 239 digs, second most on the team.
Hayley Carr led Davenport in digs last season with 404 while playing in all 29 matches. She added 73 assists and 24 aces.
Kaitlyn Marsh had 82 blocks last season to lead the Panthers while starting in all 29 matches. She also added 144 kills.
Valdosta State went 19-12 in 2024, going 13-7 inside the GSC. The Blazers were defeated in the GSC Tournament quarterfinals by Lee to end the season.
Katie Callenberger had the fourth most kills on the team last season with 223 while hitting .285. She played and started in all 31 matches while making 66 blocks.
Avery Mullins returns after finishing second on the team with 474 assists across 28 matches and 12 starts. She also served 21 aces and scooped up 179 digs.
Next week Washburn opens it's home schedule at the Washburn Invitational with four matches in two days. Day 1 begins with an 11 a.m. meeting against Truman State on Friday.
