Complete notes in PDF


Week 7 Game Notes
No. 5 Washburn (21-1, 6-0 MIAA)
Premier Mortgage Lady Blues Fall Classic
Tournament Home Page

Match 23 Panhandle State (1-20) Date: Friday, October 5, 2007 Time: 12:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena Court 2 Live Stats

Match 24 Abilene Christian (7-8) Date: Friday, October 5, 2007 Time: 6:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena Court 1 Live Stats

Match 25 Dallas Baptist (6-9) Date: Saturday, October 6, 2007 Time: 9:00 a.m. Place: Lee Arena Court 1 Live Stats

Match 26 No. 17 West Texas A&M (17-5) Date: Saturday, October 6, 2007 Time: 4:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena Court 1 Live Stats

The Lady Blues will take a 16-match winning streak and No. 5 national ranking into four matches this weekend as they host the Premier Mortgage Lady Blues Fall Classic Friday and Saturday at Lee Arena. Washburn (21-1, 6-0 MIAA) will play Panhandle State Friday at noon and then follow with Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. Saturday's opponents will be Dallas Baptist at 9:00 a.m. and West Texas A&M at 4 p.m.
   
Head coach Chris Herron will enter the week tied for the school's career win record with 167 victories in his six years. His next win will make him the all-time leader and he already leads in career winning percentage.
   
The Lady Blues will also be looking to set a school record unbeaten streak. They have won 16 straight matches and the record is 18, set in 2005. Also looking to set career milestones will be Monica Miesner and Mandi Cox. Miesner is 18 kills away from 1,000 and Cox is 21 kills away. Miesner will try to become the seventh member of WU's 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club.

Herron ties Washburn career coaching wins record
WU head coach Chris Herron moved into a tie for first in career wins at Washburn as he is 167-35 in his sixth year. His next win will put him all alone in first, passing Linda Moley who went 167-108 in five years from 1982-86.
   
Herron is already Washburn's leader in winning percentage, entering the year with an .811 mark in five full seasons. Counting his three years at Benedictine, Herron entered the year with a .778 career winning percentage, which was 10th most in NCAA Division II among active coaches.

Miesner reaches 1,000 digs and nears 1,000 kills
Junior Monica Miesner became the 16th member of Washburn's 1,000 career digs club earlier in the year and she enters the week 18 kills shy of becoming the seventh member of Washburn's 1,000 kill/1,000 digs club.
    She is currently 14th at Washburn with 1,076 digs and 13th with 982 kills.

Cox edges near 1,000 career kills
Senior Mandi Cox has 979 kills in her senior year as she looks to join teammate Tessa Jones as the latest members of the 1,000 kill club. This year she has 209 and is averaging 2.65 per game. Her career total is the 14th most in school history.

Jones joins Washburn's 1,000 kill club
Senior All-American rightside hitter Tessa Jones became the 11th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club earlier this year. With 305 this year, she now has 1,159, 10th most at WU, and she is 65 kills away from ninth. Jones is fourth all-time in kills per game with 3.71 and third with 4.42 points.

Lady Blues get past Truman to start 6-0 in MIAA play
Truman has been the team to beat for Washburn in MIAA matches and this year the Lady Blues got past the Bulldogs to set a school record by opening the season 6-0 in conference play. Truman defeated Washburn in the sixth MIAA match last year to snap WU's 5-0 start and the Bulldogs have been Washburn's first MIAA loss in each of the last five years leading up to this season.

Lady Blues look for school-record winning streak
Washburn has won 16 straight matches and can set a school record with wins in the first three matches at the Lady Blues Fall Classic this weekend. WU won 18 straight matches near the end of the 2005 season to set the current school record.

Cowhick sits atop every dig record at Washburn, climbs MIAA chart
Senior libero Erica Cowhick became the first Lady Blue to reach 2,000 digs and just the fourth in MIAA history. She holds every digs record at Washburn and is fourth all-time in the MIAA with 2,070 in her fourth year. She is 51 digs away from moving into third in MIAA history.
   
After setting the Washburn career record with her 80th career double-figure dig match, senior libero Erica Cowhick grabbed hold of every dig record at Washburn. She now has 91 matches in her career with 10 or more digs and she is also Washburn's career leader in total digs and digs per game (5.48). She also holds the top two single-season total digs and digs per game records at Washburn.

Washburn earns 46th straight ranking in AVCA poll
The Lady Blues jumped up two more spots to No. 5 in the CSTV/AVCA national poll released Monday, setting a school record for the highest ranking. The Lady Blues have been in the national poll every week since the start of the 2004 season, a total of 46 straight weeks. They have been in the top 10 in 21 of those weeks, including the past four.
   
Lady Blues Classic opponent West Texas A&M is 17th in the poll. Along with WU and No. 6 Truman, three other MIAA teams are ranked. Central Missouri is seventh, Pittsburg State is 13th and Emporia State is 23rd.

Lady Blues look to go 5-0 against ranked opponents
The Lady Blues are 4-0 against ranked opponents this year after topping No. 23 ESU and No. 6 Truman in five-game matches in the last two weeks. Prior to that WU had a 3-2 win over No. 12 PSU and a 3-1 win over No. 5 Florida Southern.Washburn played nine matches last year against ranked opponents and won four times. In Chris Herron's sixth year the Lady Blues are 21-24 against ranked teams and 5-13 against the top-10. At home they are 12-10.
Solid attack key to Lady Blues success
Washburn entered the week as the MIAA leader in three all three offensive categories. The Lady Blues led with a .266 attack percentage, 15.29 kills per game and 16.69 assists per game.
   
The Lady Blues have out-hit their opponents in 19 of their 22 matches and in all six of their home matches. Tessa Jones is fifth in the MIAA with 4.51 points per game and third with 3.93 kills while setter Kate Hamspon leads the conference with 13.39 assists a game. The Lady Blues have three hitters in the top 10 with Stephanie Nitz second with a .350 percentage and Mandi Cox and Tessa Jones ranking fifth and eigth, respectively.

Miesner named MIAA hitter of the week
Junior outside hitter Monica Miesner was named the MIAA hitter of the week for her efforts last week. She tied a school record with 28 kills in a 3-1 win over Northwest Missouri State last Saturday after having a 20-20 day Wednesday with 20 kills and 20 digs against Emporia State. For the week she averaged 5.33 kills, 6.50 points, 3.67 digs and 1.22 blocks per game while hitting .318 with four service aces.
   
Against Northwest Miesner opened the match with kills on three of Washburn's first four points and she ended that game with eight kills. She had nine in the third game. Miesner hit .426 in the match and added 13 digs for a double-double. She also had four assisted blocks and three service aces.
   
Miesner tied Washburn's single-match kill record since rally scoring began in 2001 and at least back to 1999 when single-match records were first kept. Dani McHenry also had 28 kills in a match against Central Missouri in 2004. Miesner's previous career high was 24 kills against UCM in 2005.
   
Miesner has recorded a double-double in each of the last seven matches with her strong attack and solid back-row play. Overall, she is second on the team with 3.26 kills and 3.81 points per game and in MIAA matches she leads the team with 4.20 kills and 4.98 points. She is also averaging 4.12 digs and 0.88 blocks per game in MIAA matches.
   
Miesner earned second team All-America honors in 2005, her sophomore year, after averaging 4.07 digs and 3.85 kills per game.

Hampson named MIAA specialist of the week
Sophomore setter Kate Hampson was named the MIAA specialist of the week last week, earning the award for the second time this year. She set another career high with 67 assists against Emporia State, breaking the personal record she set two weeks ago against Pittsburg State. She then followed that with 62 assists last Saturday against Northwest Missouri State in a four-game match. For the week she averaged 14.33 assists and she has reached 50 assists or more in the last seven matches.
   
Hampson entered the week leading the MIAA and was sixth in the NCAA with 13.39 assists per game. Hampson has climbed from ninth at the beginning of the season to sixth all-time at Washburn with 2,250 assists in just her second year. Last year she finished with 1,272 assists and if she repeats that this year she will move into the top five. She is also third all-time at WU with 12.03 assists per game.

Jones leads Lady Blues offense
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones is first on the team and third in the MIAA in kills per game with 3.91 and first on the team and third in the conference with 4.47 points per game. She was named the Sports Imports/AVCA national player of the week and the MIAA hitter of the week for her efforts in a pair of wins three weeks ago. Jones had a season-high 24 kills and 28 points in the 3-1 win over then-No. 5 Florida Southern. She added nine kills and 11 points at Fort Hays State to finish the week averaging 4.71 kills and 5.57 points per game.
   
Jones, an All-American the last two years, is the second WU player to ever earn the honor and first since Emily Foster did in 2004. She is the second Lady Blue to earn MIAA player of the week honors this year after Kate Hampson was named specialist of the week last week.

Nitz leads Lady Blues in attack pct., 2nd the in MIAA
Junior middle hitter Stephanie Nitz leads the team and is second in the MIAA with a .350 attack percentage to enter the week. Nitz is hitting .376 in her six MIAA matches this year and averaging 1.45 blocks per game. Overall, she entered the week seventh in the conference in blocks with 1.17 per game. She totaled 10 blocks against Emporia State and added 13 kills for her first career double-double.

Strong attack pushes Mandi Cox towards the top in the MIAA
Senior middle hitter Mandi Cox is the school's career leader with a .322 attack percentage and this year she is near the top in the MIAA. She entered the week second on the team and sixth in the conference with a .317 percentage.

Net Notes
• This year the Lady Blues have started every match but two with a win and are 19-1 when doing so. Their one loss when opening with a win came against Nebraska-Kearney. They also lost game one against Truman and Pittsburg State but rallied to beat those teams in five games. They went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match and they are 149-9 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• Senior Tessa Jones and junior Monica Miesner were named to the Rockhurst Classic all-tournament team played August 31 and September 1. Jones averaged 3.88 kills per game and hit .281 while Miesner had 2.67 kills and 3.67 digs per game in the four matches.
• The Lady Blues have been to the NCAA tournament three straight years and four times in the last five years.
• Washburn finished second in NCAA II last year in total attendance with 9,195 total fans. The 575 fans per game was sixth most in the nation. The total figure led the MIAA and the average was the second best.

Coming up next
Washburn will return to MIAA action when it hosts No. 7 Central Missouri next Wednesday. The Lady Blues will then travel to Southwest Baptist for a match next Saturday.