Complete notes in PDF


Match 10
No. 16 Washburn (8-1) vs Missouri-Rolla (0-8)
Date: Tuesday, September 4
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Lee Arena; Topeka, Kansas
Live Stats


Washburn at the Harding Lady Bison Invitational
Rhodes Field House - Searcy, Arkansas

Match 11 vs Henderson State (5-0) Date: Friday, Sept. 7 Time: 11:00 a.m.

Match 12 at Harding (6-2) Date: Friday, Sept. 7 Time: 6:00 p.m. Live Stats

Match 13 vs Eastern New Mexico (2-7) Date: Saturday, Sept. 8 Time: 10:00 a.m.

Match 14 vs Montevallo (3-6) Date: Saturday, Sept. 8 Time: 1:30 p.m.

After nine matches on the road to open the season, the Lady Blues will finally play at home in Lee Arena Tuesday against Missouri-Rolla at 6 p.m. with a chance for head coach Chris Herron to move into a tie for second in career wins at Washburn. After the UMR match Washburn (8-1) will head to Searcy, Arkansas, for the Harding Lady Bison Invitational to play Henderson State and Harding Friday and Eastern New Mexico and Montevallo Saturday.

Along with Herron's chance at reaching a milestone, senior All-American Tessa Jones will enter the week just 24 kills away from becoming Washburn's 11th member of the 1,000 kill club. Jones had 76 kills in five matches last week and is leading the team this year with 122 and 4.07 per game.

The Lady Blues went 4-1 last week, winning at Newman on Tuesday and then falling to Nebraska-Kearney at the Rockhurst Classic Friday. They bounced back from that loss with three more wins at RU.

About this week's competition
Missouri-Rolla is 0-8 in its first year of volleyball. The Lady Miners have been swept in four of their matches and have taken one match the five games as they look for their first win.
   
Henderson State is undefeated at 5-0 after winning both its matches in its tournament over the weekend. Junior Edith Musebe leads the team with 4.41 kills per game and a .383 attack percentage.
   
Host school Harding is 6-2 after losing to Missouri Southern last weekend and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville during the opening weekend. Manuela Nesheva leads the team with 5.16 kills per game and is hitting .266 on the year.
   
Eastern New Mexico dropped four matches at a tournament at Fort Lewis and is 2-7 and Montevallo is 3-6 after going 1-3 in its tournament over the weekend.

Herron one win from second most in school history
WU coach Chris Herron is one win away from tying for the second most wins in school history. He is 154-35 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 13 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.

Jones needs 24 kills to join Washburn's 1,000 kill club
Senior All-American rightside hitter Tessa Jones enters the week just 24 kills away from becoming Washburn's 11th member of the 1,000 kill club. In her three years at Washburn she has totalled 976 kills, 12th most in school history and she will become the first member of the club since Dani McHenry finished her career with 1,491 in 2004.

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 844 kills in her four years and Miesner is right behind her with 806 kills.

Cowhick nears double-figure digs and serve attempts record
Already Washburn's career digs leader, senior libero Erica Cowhick will enter the week in second place all-time at Washburn in two different categories. She has 78 career double-figure dig matches to put her one behind Dani McHenry, the school's leader with 79 from 2002-04. Also, with 1,190 service attempts, she is just 49 behind Shawna Wildeman, who played in 1988 and 1989.

Last time out: Jones and Miesner named to RU Classic all-tournament team as Lady Blues go 3-1
Senior Tessa Jones and junior Monica Miesner were named to the Rockhurst Classic all-tournament team after Washburn went 3-1 in the event. The Lady Blues opened up with a 3-1 loss to Nebraska-Kearney on Friday and then bounced back with a 3-2 win over Minnesota State. On Saturday they defeated Missouri-St. Louis 3-1 and then swept Colorado-Colorado Springs to finish the action. 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. Junior Stephanie Nitz hit a career-high .643 in the win over UCCS with 10 kills and one error in 14 attempts.

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.

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.

All-American Jones leads the Lady Blues attack
Senior rightside hitter Tessa Jones led the Lady Blues offense with 4.39 points per game as they went 4-1 last week. She reached double figures in kills in four matches to average 4.00 per game and she added seven assisted blocks and six service aces. Jones had a season-high 23 kills and hit .476 in the win over Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday at the Rockhurst Classic. For the week she hit .296.
   
Jones leads the offense with 4.07 kills per game and a .316 attack percentage overall. She is just 24 kills away from joining the WU 1,000 kill club.

Miesner getting back in the swing of things
Junior outside hitter Monica Miesner is fourth at Washburn with 31 career double-doubles. She is just one away from moving into third and four away from second. This year she has four of them, picking up three during the Rockhurst Classic. During the tournament she averaged 2.67 kills and 3.67 digs and overall she is third on the team with 2.57 kills and second with 3.75 digs.
   
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 1,805. She also leads with 5.45 per game. This year she has 163 and is averaging 5.09 per game.
   
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.

Hampson climbing up career assists chart
Sophomore setter Kate Hampson had 183 assists over the weekend to move into seventh all-time at Washburn 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.
   
This year she is averaging 12.92 assists per game after finishing with 11.26 last year, the sixth highest season total.

Net Notes
• The Lady Blues went 24-3 last year when winning the first game of a match. This year they are 8-1 with the lone loss coming to Nebraska-Kearney. They are 138-9 in Chris Herron's six years as coach.
• Senior middle hitter Mandi Cox is currently first all-time at Washburn with a .323 career attack percentage.
• 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 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 Friday, taking 41 attempts.
• 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
The Lady Blues will halt weekend tournament play for awhile and open the MIAA season with a match at Fort Hays State September 12. They will then return home to host fifth-ranked Florida Southern September 14 at 5:30 p.m. at Lee Arena.