Complete notes in PDF


Week 11 Game Notes
No. 4 Washburn (32-1, 12-0 MIAA)

Match 34 at No. 17 Emporia State (23-6, 9-2 MIAA) Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: White Auditorium; Emporia, Kan.

Match 35 Southwest Baptist (8-23) Date: Friday, November 2, 2007 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena; Topeka, Kan. Live Stats

Washburn will finish its MIAA schedule Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Emporia State and then Friday the No. 4 Lady Blues will host Southwest Baptist at 7 p.m. in a non-conference match that will mark the end of the regular season. The match will also be Senior Day as Erica Cowhick, Mandi Cox and Tessa Jones will all be honored before the match as they play their final regular season contest in Lee Arena.
   
The Lady Blues are looking to wrap up the conference slate unblemished for the first time in school history. They will also be looking to extend their school-record winning streak beyond 27 matches.

Washburn moved up a spot in the national poll to No. 4, the highest ranking in school history, and is still the No. 1 team in the South Central Region. The Lady Blues will also be a top seed in the MIAA postseason tournament as they clinched the MIAA West Division top spot. They will host a first round match November  6 against Missouri Western, the fourth seed in the East.

Lady Blues lead NCAA in wins, lead NCAA II in winning percentage
Washburn is 32-1 overall with a .970 winning percentage. The Lady Blues lead NCAA Division II in winning percentage and are tied with DIII Wittenberg and MIT for the highest total wins. Wittenberg leads the nation with a 1.000 winning percentage as the only undefeated team left.

Jones ties her own career kills record then ties school record
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones tied her own career single-match kill record in the first match last week and then preceded to tie the school record in the following match. She ended the critical week averaging 5.85 kills per game and 6.35 points during the three matches.
   
Jones tied her career record Tuesday with 26 kills against Rockhurst while hitting .438 with six blocks. In a five-game match at Pittsburg State Friday she tied the school record with 28 kills against the 18th-ranked Gorillas. She followed that with 22 kills in a four-game match at Missouri Southern as the Lady Blues went 3-0 during the week and clinched the top spot in the MIAA West Division. She hit .363 during the week and averaged 2.31 digs and 0.92 blocks per game.

Hampson named MIAA specialist of the week after busy week
In one week sophomore setter Kate Hampson set three of the school's top 12 single-match assist records (since match records were kept in 1999). She broke her own career record and came within one of the school's single-match record as WU went 3-0. For her efforts she was named the MIAA specialist of the week.
   
Last Tuesday against Rockhurst she had 66 assists, the sixth highest total at WU, and then Friday against Pittsburg State she had a career-high 73. That total is one off the school's record of 74, set in 1999.
   
She followed that with 62 assists on Saturday at Missouri Southern, tied for the 12th highest total. Hampson averaged15.46 assists per game during the week after totaling 201 to move into third in her career at Washburn.
   
For the week she also had 2.69 digs a game, five service aces, 10 kills and five blocks. Hampson was named the MIAA's top specialist two other times this year.

Miesner joins 1,000 digs/1,000 kills club
Junior Monica Miesner became the 16th member of  Washburn's 1,000 career digs club earlier in the year and then she became the 13th member of the 1,000 kills club. Now with 1,123 kills and 1,248 digs, she is Washburn's seventh member of the 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club. Miesner is currently 11th at Washburn in career kills and 11th in digs. She is 99 kills from cracking the top 10 in that category and 68 digs from the top 10 in Washburn history.
   
Miesner is second on the team this year with 3.54 kills a game and 4.35 digs. In MIAA matches only she leads the attack with 4.38 kills and a .336 attack percentage. She is currently on a streak of eight straight matches with a double-double.

Already in the 1,000 kills club, Cox looks to leave WU as career attack percentage leader
Senior Mandi Cox started the year as the school's career leader in attack percentage with a .324 mark. She is hitting exactly that this year to keep herself in first place as the season and her career are nearing an end. She has a lot of wiggle room to hold the record. The next closest in the record book is Kate Thomsen, who hit .288 from 1996-97.
   
Cox's finest year was her sophomore season when she set the school record with a .373 attack percentage. She will try this year for the ninth single-season attack percentage above .300 in Washburn history.
   
Cox joined an elite group of Lady Blues on October 6 when she reached 1,000 kills in her career to make her the 12th member of the 1,000 kill club at Washburn. Cox is currently 13th in career kills at Washburn with 1,062. With 338 total career blocks, she is 21 away from moving into the top 10.

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 481 this year, she now has 1,335, seventh most at WU, and she is 46 away from moving into sixth. Her total this year is also good enough for ninth on the single-season chart and she is 19 kills away from becoming the eighth player to reach 500 kills in a season. Jones is fourth all-time in kills per game with 3.84 and second with 4.55 points.

Lady Blues extend school record winning streak
The Lady Blues can best their previous winning streak record by 10 matches with a win Tuesday at Emporia State. They have currently won 27 straight matches, dating back to August 31. Washburn's 3-0 win October 6 against Dallas Baptist set the school winning streak record at 19 matches. Their previous best was 18 straight matches during 2005.
   
Washburn also set school records this year by winning 29 straight games and by sweeping eight straight opponents. Both of those record streaks were snapped by Rockhurst last week.

Washburn stands atop the regional poll
Riding a 25-match winning streak and 30-1 record, the Lady Blues were once again chosen as the top team in the South Central Region in the NCAA ranking released last Wednesday. Right behind the Lady Blues is MIAA member Truman at No. 2 and Gulf South Conference member West Florida.
   
The top team in each of the eight regions hosts an eight-team NCAA regional tournament from November 15-17 with the winners of each regional advancing to the Elite 8 at a site to be determined.
   
The Lady Blues have advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of the last three years and four times in the last six. They hosted the regional in 2002.

Lady Blues record school's sixth 30-win season
This year's team became just the sixth team in Washburn's history to win 30 or more matches. At 32-1 this year, they are also just the second WU team to do it since joining the MIAA in 1989. Washburn last reached 30 wins when it went 35-3 in 2005 and the school win record is 45 wins in 1985 when the Lady Blues played 63 matches.

Herron moves to the top of the list in coaching victories
WU head coach Chris Herron became Washburn's all-time leading coach by wins when the Lady Blues defeated Panhandle State on October 5. He has not lost since then and is currently 178-35 in his sixth year at Washburn. He moved past Linda Moley, Washburn's coach from 1982-86 who went 167-108 in five seasons.
   
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.

Perfect start to MIAA season sets school record
Washburn entered the year having never started the conference season better than 5-0. The  Lady Blues raced off to a 5-0 start and then came back to beat Truman in five games on October 3 to set the school record at six straight MIAA wins to start the seasons. They have not lost since then and are 12-0 in the league. 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.

Cowhick nears 100th double-figure dig match
Senior libero Erica Cowhick holds every dig record at Washburn and her next double-figure dig match will be the 100th of her career. Earlier in the year she 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 third all-time in the MIAA with 2,254 in her fourth year. She is 72 digs away from moving into second in MIAA history.

Washburn earns 50th straight ranking in AVCA poll
After spending the last four weeks ranked fifth in NCAA Division II, the Lady Blues moved up a spot to No. 4 in the AVCA national poll, released Monday. The ranking is the highest in school history.
   
Washburn has won 27 straight matches and has been ranked in the top 10 for the last eight weeks. The Lady Blues have the most wins and the highest winning percentage (.970) in NCAA II.
   
They have been ranked 50 straight times now dating back to week one of the 2004 season. They have been in the top 10 in 25 of those weeks. The Lady Blues are the highest-ranked MIAA team.

Lady Blues are 7-0 against ranked teams, face another this week
The Lady Blues are 7-0 against ranked opponents this year with three wins against top-10 teams. They will look to improve that number when they face No. 17 Emporia State Tuesday. They are 2-0 against ranked teams on the road this year with the wins coming at Truman and PSU.
   
In Chris Herron's sixth year the Lady Blues are 24-24 against ranked teams and 6-13 against the top-10. At home they are 14-10.

Solid attack key to Lady Blues success
Once again the Lady Blues lead the league in the top three offensive categories. The Lady Blues led with a .272 attack percentage, 16.88 kills per game and 15.47 assists per game. The Lady Blues have out-hit their opponents in 30 of their 33 matches and in all 14 of their home matches.
   
Tessa Jones is third in the MIAA with 4.22 kills per game, third with 4.85 points and eighth with a .305 attack percentage. Monica Miesner is ninth with 4.12 points and eighth with 3.54 kills.
   
Kate Hampson leads the conference with 13.58 assists a game and Erica Cowhick is fifth with 5.32 digs. Stephanie Nitz has moved to second in the league with 1.30 blocks a game and she is sixth with a .318 attack percentage. Mandi Cox is fourth at .324.

Net Notes
• This year the Lady Blues have started every match but two with a win and are 30-1 when doing so. Their one loss when opening with a win came against Nebraska-Kearney. When opening with two straight wins, Washburn is 25-0 with 20 sweeps. They went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match and they are 160-9 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• The Lady Blues are on pace to set a team record for attack percentage, currently hitting .272 through the season. In 2004 they hit .258, the current standing record. They are also primed to set a kills per game record with 16.88 so far this year. The record is 16.30 set in 2004.
• 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. This year the Lady Blues are averaging 485 fans a game.

Postseason coming up next for Lady Blues
Washburn will have at least one more match at home this year as it has locked up the top seed in the MIAA West Division. The Lady Blues will host Missouri Western November 6 in the first round of the MIAA Postseason Tournament. The semifinals and final will be played at the site of the top remaining team in the East Division.
   
Following the conference tournament, the Lady Blues will await word on NCAA postseason play. Washburn is currently the top seed in the South Central Region and would host the eight-team NCAA regional November 15-17 if things stay that way. The NCAA will announce its berths on a webcast November 12 at 8 a.m. with www.ncaasports.com linking to the production.