Complete notes in PDF


Week 4 Game Notes
No. 8 Washburn (13-1, 0-0 MIAA)

Match 15 at Fort Hays State (8-5) Date: Wednesday, September 12 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Gross Coliseum; Hays, Kansas

Match 16 vs No. 5 Florida Southern (9-1) Date: Friday, September 14 Time: 5:30 p.m. Place: Lee Arena; Topeka, Kan. Video Webcast Live Stats

An MIAA opener at Fort Hays State and a matchup at Lee Arena with No. 5 Florida Southern will keep the Lady Blues busy this week. Washburn, which moved from 12th to eighth in the national poll, will look for its sixth straight win in a conference opener when it plays at FHSU (8-5) Wednesday at 7 p.m. and then it will look for a big win with a top-10 showdown against FSC (9-1) Friday at 5:30 p.m. in Lee Arena.
   
Washburn has won eight straight matches and has swept its last five opponents. The Lady Blues will play their fourth true road game where they are 3-0 and just their second home game where they have a 1-0 record.
   
The Lady Blues went 5-0 last week with a home win over Missouri-Rolla and four wins at the Harding Lady Bison Classic. They have not lost a game in a match since winning in four games on September 1 to Missouri-St. Louis.

Herron moves to 2nd in career wins, nears all-time mark
WU head coach Chris Herron moved into second in career wins at Washburn, passing former coach Kelly Stauffer-Osburn who posted 155 wins from 1987-96. With a 159-35 record in his sixth year, Herron is eight wins away from tying Linda Moley, the all-time leader with 167 wins in five years.
   
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.

Jones joins Washburn's 1,000 kill club
Senior All-American rightside hitter Tessa Jones' first kill last Friday against Harding made her the 11th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club. After wrapping up the weekend classic she now has 1,037 and is 71 kills away from moving into the top 10.
   
Jones is fourth all-time in kills per game with 3.72 and third with 4.45 points. She entered the week as the team leader and fourth in the MIAA with 4.07 kills per game this year and second with 4.73 points.

Two other Lady Blue attackers near 1,000 kills
Senior Mandi Cox and junior Monica Miesner are also looking to become members of Washburn's 1,000 kill club. Cox has 885 kills in her four years and Miesner is right behind her with 852 kills.

Cowhick sets two more Washburn records
Senior libero Erica Cowhick two more career records to her resume last week. In the 3-0 win over Henderson State she recorded 12 digs to set the school record with her 80th career double-figure dig match, passing All-American Dani McHenry. Cowhick is already Washburn's career and single-season leader in total digs and digs per game.
   
She also set another record over the weekend serving against Eastern New Mexico. Her second serve Saturday in the match tied Shawna Wildeman for career service attempts and she ended the week with 1,259 to set the record.

Hampson named MIAA specialist of the week
Sophomore setter Kate Hampson was named the MIAA specialist of the week Monday for her efforts last week. She averaged 13.27 assists per game as she helped lead the Lady Blue offense to a .325 attack percentage during the week and Washburn went 5-0, sweeping every game.
  
She also helped herself with a .529 attack percentage with 21 kills and three errors in 34 attempts, 10 blocks and four service aces. In her first three matches she topped 40 assists with a week-high 47 against Missouri-Rolla to start the action. In the final match of the week against Montevallo she had 27 assists and hit 1.000 with six kills in six attempts.
   
Hampson is averaging 13.05 assists per game for the Lady Blues while adding 1.12 kills, 2.05 digs and 0.37 blocks.

Washburn earns 43rd straight ranking in AVCA poll
After sweeping all five of their opponents last week and improving to 13-1, the Lady Blues jumped four spots to No. 8 in the CSTV/AVCA national poll announced Monday.
   
After opening MIAA action Wednesday at Fort Hays State, Washburn will play its first ranked-opponent in a top-10 showdown Friday against No. 5 Florida Southern at 5:30 p.m. in Lee Arena. The Moccasins are 9-1 and have won five straight. They will host Flagler Wednesday before coming to Topeka Friday.
   
Washburn's four-spot jump put the Lady Blues ahead of Truman, which fell from sixth to 10th, and kept them in front of Pittsburg State, which took WU's spot at No. 12. Central Missouri moved up a spot to No. 6 to lead the MIAA schools in the poll and undefeated Cal State San Bernardino remained at No. 1.
   
The Lady Blues have been in the poll every week since the start of the 2004 season, a total of 43 consecutive weeks. In that time they have been in the top 10 18 times, peaking at No. 7 four times.

Lady Blues look to pick up win against ranked opponent
The No. 8 Lady Blues will be in the national spotlight when they host fifth-ranked Florida Southern Friday. Washburn played nine matches last year against ranked opponents and won four times. In Chris Herron's sixth year the Lady Blues are 17-24 against ranked teams and 3-13 against the top-10. At home they are 9-10. Washburn met FSC last year when the Moccasins were ranked 11th and Washburn was seventh. FSC came away with a 3-0 win. The Lady Blues' last win against a top-10 team came on October 15, 2005 when they beat No. 1 Truman in four games.

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.

Solid attack key to Lady Blues success
The Lady Blues have out-hit their opponents in 12 of their first 14 matches and enter the week second in the MIAA with a .261 attack percentage. They lead the league in kills per game with 16.43 and assists with 15.11 per game. Tessa Jones is second in the MIAA with 4.73 points per game and fourth with 4.07 kills while setter Kate Hamspon leads the conference with 13.05 assists a game. The Lady Blues have three hitters in the top 10 with Stephanie Nitz fourth at .327, Jones sixth at .321 and Cox seventh with a .317 mark.

All-American Jones leads the Lady Blues attack
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones reached 1,000 kills in her three-year Lady Blues career with 61 of them as Washburn went 5-0 last week, sweeping every game. Jones averaged 4.07 kills per game and hit .331. She also averaged 1.07 blocks per game to score 4.83 points per game during the week. She opened the week with 13 kills against Missouri-Rolla on Tuesday, pulling her within one of becoming the 11th member of Washburn 1,000 kill club. She then reached the milestone with her first kill against Henderson State. Jones had double-figure kill matches in four on the five contests. Against Harding, the host of the Lady Bison Classic, Jones hit .419 with 14 kills and one error in 31 attempts. She also had eight blocks that match.
   
Jones earned honorable mention All-America honors last year, as well as first team all-region and second team all-MIAA honor. In 2005, her sophomore year, she earned third team All-America honor.

Miesner provides offensive and defensive spark
Junior outside hitter Monica Miesner is averaging 2.74 kills and 4.02 digs per game this year, both second best totals on the team. With her ability to both attack and defend, she has five double-doubles this year and she is tied for third at Washburn with 32 career double-doubles. She needs just three more to tie Lindsey Kersting, who totaled 35 from 1999-2002. She is also fifth with 48 career double-figure dig 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 and this year she has moved the total up to 1,882. She also leads with 5.44 per game. This year she has 240 and is averaging 5.11 per game, sixth best in the MIAA.
   
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.

Hampson climbing up career assists chart, leads MIAA
Sophomore setter Kate Hampson leads the MIAA with 13.05 assists per game and is helping to lead an offense that is first in the MIAA in kills and assists and second in attack percentage.
   
Hampson has climbed from ninth at the beginning of the season to seventh all-time at Washburn with 1,807 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 11.73 assists per game.

Net Notes
• Washburn is looking to win its MIAA opener for just the seventh time in 19 years in the league. Five of those wins have come under coach Chris Herron as he is undefeated in conference openers.
• The Lady Blues went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match. This year they have started every match with a win and are 13-1 with the lone loss coming to Nebraska-Kearney. They are 143-9 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• Senior middle hitter Mandi Cox is currently first all-time at Washburn with a .324 career attack percentage. This year she is hitting .317, third best on the team and seventh best in the conference.
• 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 started Stephanie Nitz and Mandi Cox at middle hitter, Tessa Jones at rigthside hitter and Erica Cowhick at libero in every match this year. Setter Kate Hampson and outside hitter Monica Miesner have both started in all but one match.
• Freshman Caitlin Conley started for the Lady Blues at outside hitter in the final three matches of the Rockhurst Classic and averaged 2.18 kills per game. She had a season high with 12 in the match against Minnesota State, taking 41 attempts. She also tied that total with 12 kills at Harding.
• 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 one win away from tying for second in all-time wins at Washburn. He has 154 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 three more MIAA matches next week. The Lady Blues will play at Northwest Missouri State in a non-conference meeting September 18 and then host Pittsburg State September 21 and then Missouri Southern State September 22.