Complete Game Notes in PDF

Match 5
No. 16 Washburn (4-0) at Newman (0-4)
Fugate Gymnasium - Wichita, Kan.
Date: Tuesday, August 28
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Series Record: 15-7


Washburn at the Rockhurst Classic
Mason-Halpin Field House and the Convocation Center - Kansas City, Mo.

Match 6 vs Nebraska-Kearney (4-0) Date: Friday, Aug. 31 Time: 12:00 p.m. Series Record: 6-22

Match 7 vs Minnesota State (4-0) Date: Friday, Aug. 31 Time: 4:30 p.m. Series Record: 2-0

Match 8 vs Missouri-St. Louis (2-2) Date: Saturday, Sept. 1 Time: 9:30 a.m. Series Record: 2-9

Match 9 vs Colorado-Colorado Springs (1-4) Date: Saturday, Sept. 1 Time: 2:00 p.m. Series Record: 2-0

The Lady Blues will finish their nine-match, season-opening road trip when they play at Newman Tuesday at 7 p.m. and then at the Rockhurst Classic Friday and Saturday. No. 16 Washburn will take on Nebraska-Kearney Friday at noon and then Minnesota State at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday the Lady Blues will play Missouri-St. Louis at 9:30 a.m. and then finish with Colorado-Colorado Springs at 2 p.m.

Washburn (4-0) started the season with four straight wins at the Nova Southeastern Sharks Classic and is looking to continue its streak of hot starts to the season. The Lady Blues have won at least their first six  matches each season in head coach Chris Herron's first five years.

Senior All-American Tessa Jones leads the Lady Blues with 4.18 kills per game while sophomore setter Kate Hampson has orchestrated the attack with 13.67 assists per game. On defense senior Mandi Cox leads with 1.08 blocks per game and senior Erica Cowhick leads with 5.38 digs.

About this week's competition
A six-match winning streak will be on the line when the Lady Blues head to Newman Tuesday. The Jets (0-4) opened the season with four losses at a tournament at Arkansas Tech and are coming off a 19-16 record from last year.
   
Washburn and Nebraska-Kearney will meet for the first time since 1993. The two played regularly from 1976 until the early 1990s with the Lopers holding a 22-6 record in the series. The Lopers started this year 4-0 by going undefeated in its own tournament. UNK went 28-8 last year, won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference East Division and advanced to the NCAA tournament.
   
The Lady Blues will play Minnesota State for just the third time in school history with WU winning the first two meetings. The two met last year in the Lady Blues Classic in a WU sweep. MSU was also at the NSU Classic last weekend and went 4-0 as well.
   
UMSL will enter the tournament 2-2 after splitting at Missouri Southern's tournament. Washburn is just 2-9 against the Tritons but has not lost to them since 1995.
   
The Lady Blues and UCCS will meet for the third time in history with Washburn holding a 2-0 record. The Mountain Lions went 1-4 in five matches in Florida in the opening weekend.

Herron five wins from second most in school history
WU coach Chris Herron is five wins away from tying for the second most wins in school history. He is 150-34 in his sixth year at Washburn as he looks to tie Kelly Stauffer-Osburn, who went 155-269 in 10 years. Herron is also just 17 wins away from tying the school's all-time win record for a coach. Linda Moley won 167 matches in five years in the 1980s.

Three Lady Blue attackers near 1,000 kills
Seniors Tessa Jones and Mandi Cox and junior Monica Miesner are all looking to become members of Washburn's 1,000 kill club. Jones leads the charge with 900 career kills while Cox has 802. Miesner is right behind her with 760 kills. All-American Dani McHenry was the last Lady Blue to join the club, totalling 1,491 kills from 2002-04.

Last time out: Lady Blues win four in Florida
No. 16 Washburn started its season by sweeping through the Nova Southeastern Sharks Classic with four wins, losing just one game in the matches. The Lady Blues won the opener against Augustana, 3-0. Jones led the team with 16 kills and Miesner added 11 while junior libero Erica Cowhick added to her career digs record with 18 of them. Sophomore Kate Hampson had 40 assists as the setter and junior Stephanie Nitz led the Lady Blues with three blocks. Jones led the Lady Blues with a .464 percentage while senior Mandi Cox hit .545 with six kills and no errors. Against Lynn Jones once again led the attack with 18 kills and tied Cox with a .318 attack percentage to top all players. Jones had her 15th career double-double with 18 kills and 11 digs and Miesner had her 28th with 15 kills and 22 digs. Junior Carolyn Raynes started at setter and had 27 assists and Hampson also added 27 off the bench. On defense five Lady Blues reached double figures in digs with Miesner leading the way with 22.
   
On day two Nitz hit .522 with 13 kills and one error while Jones had 11 kills and 11 digs for a double-double. Cowhick and Miesner also reached double figures in digs with Cowhick leading the team with 15. Hampson had 42 assists in leading the offense and on defense Jones and Cox led with five blocks each. In the tournament finale against Palm Beach Atlantic Shepard hit .474 with 10 kills and one error in 19 attempts. Cox added eight kills and four service aces while Cowhick led the team with 24 digs. Sophomore Joanna Alfers nearly reached double figures with nine kills.

Lady Blues picked to win MIAA championship
Picking up six of the 10 first-place votes, the Lady Blues were chosen by the MIAA coaches to win the league in the preseason poll. Washburn edged Truman, last year's champions, by four points in the voting with Central Missouri coming in third.
   
The Lady Blues went 9-4 last year to finish first in the West Division. They hosted the postseason tournament and defeated Northwest Missouri State and Central Missouri before falling to No. 1 Truman in the final.

Washburn earns 41st straight ranking in AVCA poll
Coming off a 27-9 season and with two returning All-Americans, the Lady Blues earned a No. 16 ranking in the CSTV/American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll.
   
Washburn was one of three MIAA teams ranked with Truman earning a No. 7 vote and Central Missouri coming in at 12th. Tampa was picked to repeat after winning the national championship last year.
   
The Lady Blues have been in the weekly poll every week since the first week of the 2004 season, a total of 41 consecutive weeks. In that time they have been in the top 10 17 times, peaking at No. 7 four times. Last year they finished 23rd overall.

All-American Jones leads the Lady Blues attack
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones led the Lady Blues offense with 46 kills as the team went 4-0 in the Nova Southeastern Sharks Classic to open the season. In the opener against Augustana she had 16 kills and hit .464 with three errors in 28 attempts. In the next two matches she recorded double-doubles with 18 kills and 11 digs against Lynn and 11 kills and 11 digs against Nova Southeastern. For the weekend she hit .349 and averaged 4.18 kills and 2.73 digs per game. She also totaled 11 blocks in the four matches and led the team with 5.18 points per game.
   
Jones earned honorable mention All-America honors last year while leading the Lady Blues with 3.74 kills per game. Her sophomore year she set down 3.58 per game to earn third-team honors.

Miesner getting back in the swing of things
Junior outside hitter Monica Miesner had a strong opening weekend after missing most of last year with a medical redshirt. She was second on the team with 4.20 digs per game and also averaged 2.60 kills while playing in three of the four matches.
   
Miesner earned second team All-America honors in 2005, her sophomore year, after averaging 4.07 digs and 3.85 kills per game.

Cowhick enters her senior year as WU's digs leader
Senior libero Erica Cowhick holds every one of Washburn's digs records. She set the school's career digs record last year with 1,642 when she had 15 in the final match of the year. This year she has added 70 to that total for 1,712.

Her 901 digs last year was also a school record and was the second most in MIAA history. She led the MIAA and broke her own school record with 6.93 digs per game last year and that total was fourth most in the nation. She also holds the school's career digs per game record with 5.49 at the start of the season.

Raynes and Hampson splitting time at setter spot
Junior Carolyn Raynes and sophomore Kate Hampson will both return this year after splitting time as setter last year. Hampson has played in all four matches with three starts and is averaging 13.67 assists per game this year. Raynes has played in two matches with one start to average 10.60 assists a game. Hampson's 123 assists this year has moved her into eighth all-time and she is 1,018 out of the top five. Raynes is 12th in school history with 843 assists.

Last year Hampson started 29 of the 36 matches and led the team with 1,272 assists and 11.26 per game. In one year she moved into ninth all-time at Washburn in career assists and second in assists per game. Raynes played in 24 matches with seven starts and totaled 387 assists and 7.90 per game.

Net Notes
• The Lady Blues went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match. This year they are 4-0 and they are 134-8 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• Senior middle hitter Mandi Cox is currently first all-time at Washburn with a .327 career attack percentage.
• The Lady Blues won their first seven matches last year and have gone 6-0 or better in each of Chris Herron's five previous years. In 2004 the Lady Blues set a school record by winning their first 14 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.
• Head coach Chris Herron is five wins away from tying for second in all-time wins at Washburn. He has 150 wins in his five years and he's chasing Kelly Stauffer-Osburn, who totaled 155 wins in 10 years.

Coming up next
Washburn will play its first home match of the year when it hosts Missouri-Rolla September 4 at 6 p.m. in Lee Arena. The Lady Blues will then return to the road September 7 and 8 to play four matches in the Harding Classic in Searcy, Arkansas. Washburn will play Henderson State, Harding, Eastern New Mexico and Montevallo.