Box Score
Season Statistics

HAYS, Kan. - The eighth-ranked Lady Blues won their ninth straight match, swept their seventh straight opponent and opened MIAA play with a victory in a 30-19, 30-25, 30-16 win at Fort Hays State Wednesday night. Mandi Cox led the team with 13 kills and hit .500 as Washburn (14-1, 1-0 MIAA) hit .281 as a team.

The Lady Blues will return home Friday for a 5:30 p.m. match with No. 5 Florida Southern in Lee Arena. The game will be available on a live video webcast for $5 by clicking here. The Moccasins defeated Flagler, 3-0 Wednesday night to put them at 10-1.

Cox, already the school's career leader in attack percentage, led the team and tied her season high with the 15 kills and had just one error in 24 attempts. Monica Miesner and Tessa Jones eached finished just short of double-figure kill matches with nine each. Stephanie Nitz led the Lady Blues above the net with one solo block and five assisted blocks, having a hand in each of Washburn's six total blocks and Kate Hampson led the team with 34 assists.

On defense Erica Erica Cowhick led the team with 17 digs and Miesner added 12 as they kept the Tigers to a .047attack percentage.

The Lady Blues trailed early in each game but took advantage of poor hitting by FHSU in the first and third and a strong finish by Cox in the second game. Washburn hit .344 in the opening game and kept the Tigers to .000 hitting. In game two the Tigers were down, 7-6 but scored eight straight points to go up 13-7. The Lady Blues later rallied with an 8-0 run of their own thanks to six Tiger errors and then Cox slammed down the final three points of the game with kills. After an 11-10 FHSU lead in the third game the Lady Blues put away FHSU with 13 straight points as part of a 16-2 run to make the score 27-13.

The win kept head coach Chris Herron a perfect 6-0 in MIAA openers.