Box Score
Season Statistics

PITTSBURG, Kan. - Tessa Jones led four Lady Blues with double figure kills with a career-high 28 Friday night as the Lady Blues held on for a 3-2 win at No. 18 Pittsburg State. No. 5 Washburn (31-1, 11-0 MIAA) won the two hour, 20 minute match 30-27, 22-30, 30-27, 27-30, 15-11 to win for the 26th straight time.

The win clinched at least a share of the top spot in the MIAA West Division as second place Emporia State has nine wins with two matches to play. A WU win or ESU loss will clinch the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

The Lady Blues will continue MIAA action Saturday with a 2 p.m. match at Missouri Southern.

Three Lady Blues recorded double-doubles and four different individual career records were broken or tied in the match.

Jones hit .316 and broke her career record of 26 that she tied Tuesday against Rockhurst. She also tied teammate Monica Miesner and former All-American Dani McHenry with the school rally scoring record of 28 kills in a match. Miesner recorded the feat earlier this year while McHenry did it in 2004.

Miesner had a career night of her own with a career-best 31 digs and she added her seventh straight double-double with 16 kills while blocking seven PSU attacks.

Washburn's proficient offense led setter Kate Hampson to a career-high 73 assists, one off the school record and she added 10 digs for a double-double.

Stephanie Nitz also tied a career-high with 10 blocks and had a double-double with 12 kills. Anna Simpson-Mills also got in on the attack with 13 kills.

The Washburn back row also played strong against PSU's attack. Along with Miesner's 31 digs and Hampson's 10, Erica Cowhick had 22 and Molly Smith had 11.

Washburn just edged the Gorillas in kills, 79-73 and in digs, 95-94 and each school blocked 17 attacks. While the Lady Blues had 10 service errors to PSU's 4, they were able to pick up wins in games one, three and five off poor hitting by the Gorillas. PSU hit .151 and .140 in the first and third games and then hit just .056 in the deciding game.

Washburn improved to 5-0 this year in matches that go five games while moving to 7-0 against ranked teams. Head coach Chris Herron evened his career record at Washburn to 24-24 against ranked teams.