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TOPEKA, Kan. – After splitting wins with Western Washington in the first two games Friday night, the Lady Blues couldn't keep up as they fell 3-1 (23-30, 30-23, 30-26, 30-20) to the Vikings in the NCAA Volleyball National Championship semifinal at Lee Arena.

Washburn ended its season at 38-4 while the Vikings (26-4) advance to the national championship match Saturday at 7 p.m. Central against No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul.

Tessa Jones had 21 kills and finished her three-year career at Washburn with 1,511, putting her fourth all-time in Lady Blues history. The match was also her 87th double-figure kill match, setting a new school record.

Monica Miesner had a double-double for Washburn with 13 kills and 24 digs and Mandi Cox had 11 kills to end her career with 1,148, 12th most in school history.

Erica Cowhick, already the school's career digs leader since last year, had 34 digs to give her 2,464 in her four years, the second most in MIAA history.

Kate Hampson had 47 assists and 17 digs for a double-double and Molly Smith reached double figures in digs with 16.

The Vikings were led by Jaime Anderson with 20 kills and added a double-double with 11 digs while Emily Castro had 19 kills. Courtney Schneider had 44 digs.


Notes
• The loss ended Washburn's furthest run into the NCAA postseason. Before this year the Lady Blues had never been past the second round of the tournament.
• The loss was the first in Lee Arena for Washburn this year. WU went 17-1 at home and averaged 688 fans a match.
• Tessa Jones ended her career second in career points per game with 4.66, third in total points with 1777.0, fourth in kills with 1,511, fourth in kills per game with 3.97 and third in attack percentage with a .286 mark.
• Jones set school single-season records this year with 657 kills, 4.47 kills per game, 1,598 attack attempts, 748.0 points and 5.09 points per game.
• Her 87 double-figure kill matches is a career record at WU, breaking the record of 86 set by Dani McHenry from 2002-04.
• Mandi Cox ended her career as the school's career leader in attack percentage with a .326 mark in her four years. Her .329 percentage this year led the team and was the fourth highest in school history.
• She finished eighth in total blocks with 371 and she finished tied for sixth with 290 assisted blocks.
• Erica Cowhick finished with 2,464 digs, making her first in WU career history and second in the MIAA. She became the fourth player in the conference to total 2,000 or more digs.
• Cowhick finished her career with 108 double-figure dig matches, a school record by 29 matches.
• Washburn's 38 wins is the fourth most in school history and most since joining the NCAA. The four losses is the second fewest in school history and the .905 winning percentage is the second highest in school history.
• Washburn set a school record earlier this year with 28 straight match wins and 29 straight game wins.
• The Lady Blues swept 24 opponents this year, breaking the previous school record of 22 set in 2005.
• Washburn's 2527 kills this year is a school record, besting the total of 2,154 in 2005. The .265 team attack percentage also broke a school record.