October 10, 2008-All-American Arica Shepard had a career high 26 kills on .434 hitting and Ting Liu added a career high 66 assists as #11 Emporia State defeated #13 Pittsburg State in five sets at White Auditorium on Friday night.

The Hornets rolled to the win in set one, 25-13, by limiting the Gorillas to .000 hitting while converting at a .286 clip. ESU went into intermission with a 2-0 lead following a 25-21 win in the second set. Pitt State scored a 25-17 win in set three thanks to .529 hitting. The Gorillas tied it up with a 25-20 win in the fourth set to send the match to a fifth.

The Gorillas led 11-8 in the final set on Linda Igbinigie's 16th kill of the match before the Hornets ended the match on a 7-1 run to take the victory. Four different Hornets had kills and five scored points for ESU during the run. Ting Liu gave the Hornets the win with a dink kill for match point.

In addition to her career high 26 kills, Shepard had 14 digs to lead three Hornets in double figure kills. Megan Koster had 12 kills and 14 digs while Brittney Miller added 15 kills on .324 hitting. Brianne Boner added six block assists and nine kills. Amy Byfield had 23 digs.

With the win ESU ran their winning streak to 18 matches. The Hornets have now won 11 straight in White Auditorium including their last five home matches against ranked teams.

The Hornets are back in action on Saturday night when they take on Missouri Southern. First serve is set for 7 p.m.