Complete notes in PDF


Week 6 Game Notes
No. 7 Washburn (18-1, 3-0 MIAA)

Match 20 No. 23 Emporia State (13-4, 3-1 MIAA) Date: Wednesday, September 26 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena; Topeka, Kan. Video Webcast Live Stats

Match 21 Northwest Missouri (9-10, 1-2 MIAA) Date: Saturday, September 29 Time: 1:00 p.m. Place: Lee Arena; Topeka, Kan. Video Webcast Live Stats

The Lady Blues will play two more matches at home this week as they look to extend a 13-match winning streak and remain undefeated in the MIAA. No. 7 Washburn (18-1, 3-0 MIAA) will host No. 23 Emporia State (13-4, 3-1 MIAA) Wednesday at 7 p.m. and then Northwest Missouri (9-10, 1-2 MIAA) Saturday at 1 p.m. in Lee Arena. The Lady Blues are 4-0 at home and are 12-0 overall in the month of September.
   
A pair of wins this week would make the Lady Blues 5-0 to start the MIAA season, tying a school record set last year. Washburn will be facing its third ranked opponent in as many weeks after ESU jumped into the national rankings at No. 23 while the Lady Blues and Bearcats will be facing each other for the second straight week after Washburn won, 3-1 in a non-conference match at NWMSU last Tuesday.
   
Erica Cowhick will enter the week 21 digs away from becoming the first Lady Blue to reach 2,000 digs and the fourth in the MIAA while coach Chris Herron is three wins away from tying for most in school history.

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 164-35 record in his sixth year, Herron is three 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.

Miesner reaches 1,000 digs and nears 1,000 kills
Junior Monica Miesner became the 16th member of Washburn's 1,000 career digs club when she had 19 of them against Pittsburg State last Friday. Entering the week she has 1,016 to tie for 15th all-time. She also enters the week with 918 kills, putting her at 14th overall and making her 82 kills away from becoming the seventh player to reach 1,000 digs and kills as six others have done so already.

Cox edges near 1,000 career kills
Senior Mandi Cox has 940 kills in her senior year as she looks to join teammate Tessa Jones as the latest members of the 1,000 kill club. This year she has 170 and is averaging 2.62 per game. Her career total is the 13th most in school history.

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 260 this year, she now has 1,114 and is 23 kills as she has moved into the top 10.
   
Jones is fourth all-time in kills per game with 3.74 and third with 4.46 points.

Cowhick sits atop every dig record at Washburn, climbs MIAA chart
Senior libero Erica Cowhick is 21 digs away from becoming 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 fourth all-time in the MIAA with 1,979 in her fourth year. She is 142 digs away from moving into third in MIAA history.
   
After setting the Washburn career record with her 80th career double-figure dig match, senior libero Erica Cowhick grabbed hold of every dig record at Washburn. She now has 88 matches in her career with 10 or more digs and she is also Washburn's career leader in total digs and digs per game (5.44). She also holds the top two single-season total digs and digs per game records at Washburn.

Washburn earns 45th straight ranking in AVCA poll
After going 3-0 last week with a win over then-No. 12 Pittsburg State, the Lady Blues remained in seventh place in the CSTV/AVCA national poll released Monday. The Lady Blues have been ranked 45 straight times now and have been in the top 10 in 20 of those weeks, including the past three. Washburn has been in the poll every week since the start of the 2004 season.
   
Emporia State, Wednesday's opponent, made its season debut in the poll this week after posting wins over Rockhurst and Pittsburg State, ranked 23rd and 12th last week, respectively. MIAA opponents Central Missouri and Truman also stayed put at fifth and eighth, respectivly, while PSU dropped to 14th.

Lady Blues look to go 3-0 against ranked opponents
The Lady Blues are 2-0 against ranked opponents this year with a 3-2 win over No. 12 PSU last week and a 3-1 win over No. 5 Florida Southern earlier.Washburn played nine matches last year against ranked opponents and won four times. In Chris Herron's sixth year the Lady Blues are 19-24 against ranked teams and 4-13 against the top-10. At home they are 11-10. This will be the first time they have faced Emporia State when both teams are ranked.

Solid attack key to Lady Blues success
Washburn entered last week with a .257 team attack percentage. In three matches last week the Lady Blues hit .303 to raise their percentage to .265 on the year.
   
The Lady Blues have out-hit their opponents in 17 of their first 19 matches and enter the week second in the MIAA in attack percentage. They lead the league in kills per game with 16.62 and assists with 15.23 per game. Tessa Jones is third in the MIAA with 4.67 points per game and third with 4.06 kills while setter Kate Hamspon leads the conference with 13.25 assists a game. The Lady Blues have three hitters in the top 10 with Stephanie Nitz third with at .346 percentage and Mandi Cox and Tessa Jones ranking sixth and seventh, respectively.

Miesner provides offensive and defensive spark
Junior outside hitter Monica Miesner averaged 4.25 points per game and 3.75 digs per game as the Lady Blues won three matches last week. She also hit over .350 in each match and ended the week with a .378 percentage. She had double-doubles in all three matches and finished second on the team in kills with 3.58 per game and digs with 3.75. Her points total led the team for the week. Miesner had 11 kills and 14 digs in a 3-1 win at Northwest Missouri State Wednesday and then on Friday she had 19 kills and 19 digs in a 3-2 win over No. 12 Pittsburg State. She passed the 1,000 dig mark in her career during that match and ended the week 1,016.
   
Miesner is averaging 2.97 kills and 3.98 digs per game this year, both second best totals on the team. With her ability to both attack and defend, she has nine double-doubles this year and she is second at Washburn with 36 career double-doubles. She is also fourth with 53 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.

Hampson reaches 2,000 career assists, leads MIAA this year
Sophomore setter Kate Hampson averaged 14.58 assists per game and topped 50 assists in each match last week as she totaled 175 for the week. She had 54 against Northwest Missouri Wednesday and then a career-high 66 against No. 12 Pittsburg State on Friday. On Saturday against Missouri Southern she set a three-game school record with 55 assists, breaking her own previous record of 50. On Friday she reached 2,000 assists in her career, becoming just the seventh Lady Blue to do so.
   
Hampson leads the MIAA with 13.25 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 2,067 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 11.95 assists per game.

Jones leads Lady Blues offense
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones is first on the team and third in the MIAA in kills per game with 4.06 and first on the team and third in the conference with 4.67 points per game. She was named the Sports Imports/AVCA national player of the week and the MIAA hitter of the week for her efforts in a pair of wins two weeks ago. Jones had a season-high 24 kills and 28 points in the 3-1 win over then-No. 5 Florida Southern. She added nine kills and 11 points at Fort Hays State to finish the week averaging 4.71 kills and 5.57 points per game.
   
Jones, an All-American the last two years, is the second WU player to ever earn the honor and first since Emily Foster did in 2004. She is the second Lady Blue to earn MIAA player of the week honors this year after Kate Hampson was named specialist of the week last week.

Nitz leads Lady Blues in attack pct., near the top in MIAA
Junior middle hitter Stephanie Nitz leads the team and is third in the MIAA with a .346 attack percentage. She hit .549 during three matches last week and averaged 3.00 kills and 0.82 blocks per game. She reached double figures in kills all three matches. At Northwest Missouri she had 13 kills and hit .611 and against then-No. 12 Pttsburg State she had 10 kills with one error to hit .643 in the match. Saturday against Missouri Southern she had 10 kills and hit .421. She has hit .400 or better 10 times this year in 18 matches.
   
Nitz also leads the team with 1.10 blocks per game and she entered the week ninth in the MIAA in that category. She leads the team with 13 solo blocks, 56 assists and 69 total blocks.

Strong attack pushes Mandi Cox towards the top in the MIAA
Senior middle hitter Mandi Cox is the school's career leader with a .323 attack percentage and this year she is near the top in the MIAA. She entered the week second on the team and sixth in the conference with a .313 percentage.

Net Notes
• Washburn is looking to match its 5-0 start from last year, a school record for wins to start the conference season. This year is just the third time since joining the league in 1990 that the Lady Blues have started the MIAA season 3-0.
• This year the Lady Blues have started every match but one with a win and are 17-1 when doing so. Their one loss when opening with a win came against Nebraska-Kearney. Friday against Pittsburg State they opened with a loss but rallied to win the match in five. They went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match and they are 147-9 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• 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.
• Freshman Caitlin Conley has started for the Lady Blues at outside hitter in 11 of the last 13 matches. She is averaging 2.20 kills per game with a .204 attack percentage.
• 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.

Coming up next
The Lady Blues will play another ranked opponent next week as they travel to No. 8 Truman October 3. They will then return home October 5-6 to host the Premier Mortgage Lady Blues Fall Classic.