Record: 30-5 Overall, 15-5 MIAA
Current Streak: Lost 1
AVCA National Ranking: No. 10

Day	Date	Opponent	Time	Location	Arena	Series Record	Video	Live Stats
Fri	Nov. 21	vs No. 12 Central Missouri (28-9)	12 p.m.	Emporia, Kan.	White Auditorium	UCM 40-9	None	Here
Sat	Nov. 22	Semifinal	4:30 p.m.	Emporia, Kan.	White Auditorium		None	Here
Sun	Nov. 23	South Central Region Championship	5 p.m.	Emporia, Kan.	White Auditorium		None	Here

Defense of South Central Region title begins Friday against UCM
The 10th-ranked Lady Blues will begin defense of their South Central Region title as they begin their fifth straight NCAA tournament Friday at noon against No. 12 Central Missouri. Washburn (30-5) is the No. 3 seed in the region while UCM (28-9) is seeded sixth. The three rounds of the region tournament are hosted by Emporia State.
   
The winner of the first round will play Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against the No. 2 Truman/No. 7 Nebraska-Omaha winner.
   
Washburn and UCM are two of six MIAA teams in the eight-team South Central Region tournament. The top six teams in the conference standings made the field and all but UNO are ranked in the top 12 nationally.
   
Washburn was the No. 2 seed last year in the region and won its first South Central Region title, sweeping West Georgia and UCM and beating host school Truman, 3-1. The Lady Blues went on to host the national tournament and won in a quarterfinal before falling in a semifinal.

Notes of Interest
• Washburn is 6-5 in NCAA tournament history, making six trips now in the last seven years. The Lady Blues are 5-4 in region play and 3-2 in first round matches. They are 1-2 against UCM.
• Monica Miesner is one of two players in WU history currently in the top five in kills, digs and points.
• The Lady Blues' last win made the 2000s the winningest decade in WU volleyball history. Washburn now has 250 wins this decade.
• Miesner is hitting .381 in the last six matches and averaging 3.75 kills and 4.40 digs a set.
• The Lady Blues are 29-2 this year when opening the match with a win and 27-0 when opening with two wins.
• Mollie Lacy is on pace to have the second highest single-season attack percentage in school history and the highest for a freshman.

Washburn remains No. 10 in national poll
The Lady Blues will begin their fifth straight NCAA tournament as the 10th-ranked team in the nation after the Bison/AVCA national poll was released Monday. Washburn (30-5) is the No. 3 seed in the South Central Region and will play sixth-seeded Central Missouri, ranked 12th in the country, Friday at noon in the first round. This is the 25th straight week WU has been in the top 10 and the 67th straight time being in the top 25, dating back to week one of the 2004 season.

Lady Blues headed to fifth straight NCAA tournament
Washburn earned its fifth straight trip to the NCAA tournament and its sixth in school history, all coming in the last seven years. Head coach Chris Herron has led the team to all six of the postseasons and he has a 6-5 record in the tournament and a 5-4 record in the region tournament.
   
Last year the Lady Blues won the South Central Region tournament and hosted the national tournament. WU won in the quarterfinal before falling in the semifinal. The Lady Blues beat Central Missouri and Truman, a pair of region qualifiers this year, on the way to last year's region title.
   
Washburn is 3-2 in the South Central Region first round, 1-2 in the semifinal and 1-0 in the region championship match. Amongst this year's field, the Lady Blues are 1-2 against Central Missouri and 1-1 against Truman.            Monica Miesner is second in school history with 99 kills in NCAA tournament matches and she's third with 113.0 points. Kate Hampson is the school's leader with 291 assists and 13.23 per set in NCAA matches. Stephanie Nitz is second with 22 career blocks.

Washburn vs the tournament field
Central Missouri holds a 40-9 lead in the all-time series history against Washburn but the Lady Blues have gotten seven of those nine wins in the last four seasons. They are 6-2 against the Jennies since 2005.
   
Six MIAA teams made the South Central Region field, leaving No 8 Texas-Permian Basin and No. 5 West Texas A&M as the two remaining teams. WU has never played UTPB and has a 1-0 record against WTAMU.
   
WU is 24-76 against No. 1 ESU, 34-8 against No. 2 TSU, 45-21 against No. 4 PSU and 2-3 against No. 7 Nebraska-Omaha.
   
This year the Lady Blues split their two matches against all five of the MIAA opponents in the tournament. The home team won each time and those road losses accounted for all five of Washburn's losses this year.
   
Hampson breaks Washburn's career assists record
With her seventh assist in WU's 3-1 home win over No. 13 Pittsburg State on October 11, Hampson surpassed Lindsey Kersting (1999-2002 -- 3,915) as the school's career leader. The junior has 1,219 this year and is averaging 10.51 per set. Hampson now has 4,419 in her career and she needs 645 to move into the MIAA's career top 10. A repeat performance next year would put in the MIAA's top five.
   
Hampson also broke another WU record when she got her 74th career match with 30 or more assists. Kersting held the record with 73 30-plus assist matches until Hampson got 33 assists at Northwest Missouri State last week.  Hampson now has 78 30-plus assist matches.

Lady Blues wrap up perfect regular season in Lee Arena
Washburn went 14-0 in home matches this year with 11 three-set sweeps, wrapping up the second straight season without a regular season loss at home. The Lady Blues went 42-3 in sets with the three losses coming in a trio of four-set wins. Washburn out-hit its opponents .267 to .113 with 14.89 kills while opponents had 11.18 kills per set.
   
Ashley Shepard led the team at home with 145 kills and 3.45 per set while Stephanie Nitz led the team with a .371 attack percentage. Monica Miesner had 2.67 kills and 3.86 digs a set in home matches.
   
The Lady Blues are 44-4 in the last three seasons in Lee Arena and 90-12 in the building in seven seasons under Chris Herron. They have won 30 straight regular season home matches in Lee Arena.
   
Washburn finished third in the nation last year with 688 fans per match and second with 12,381 total fans. Those totals were the highest in the MIAA. This year Washburn is averaging 497 fans through nine matches.

Herron earns 200th win at Washburn
Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 214-43 in his seventh season with the Lady Blues, making him the third active coach in the MIAA with at least 200 wins. He got his 200th win on October 3 against Midwestern State. He is already the school's career leader in wins and his .833 winning percentage is also the school's highest.
   
Overall, Herron is 289-72 in 10 seasons with an .801 winning percentage. He is currently the third winningest active coach in the MIAA and the 34th winningest coach among active NCAA II coaches. Herron went 75-29 in three seasons at Benedictine.
   
Only two other active MIAA coaches have more than 200 wins at their school. Peggy Martin, in her 33rd and final year at Central Missouri, has over 1,000 and Rose Shires, the 19-year coach of MIAA newcomer Nebraska-Omaha, has over 375 wins.

Miesner finishing strong down the stretch
Monica Miesner is hitting .381 in the last six matches and averaging 3.75 kills and 4.40 digs a set. She leads the team in all three of those categories during that stretch. She reached double figures in kills in five of those matches and double figures in digs four times and she has had a double-double in each of the last four matches. Her attack percentage has been above .400 four times with a high of .500 against Central Missouri on October 31 with 10 kills and one error in 18 tries.

Miesner in top five in career kills, digs and points
Monica Miesner moved to third in career points at Washburn after last week and now has 1,814.5 in her final season. She is also second in career digs with 1,854 and she's third with 1,569 kills. She is one of two players in WU career history currently in the top five in those three categories.
   
Miesner moved to the top 10 in MIAA history in digs and is 70 away from moving into sixth.
   
Miesner has 65 career double-doubles and needs two more to tie assistant coach and All-American Dani (McHenry) Schmidt for first in WU history. She also has 98 double-figure dig matches, the second most in school history, and she's third with 78 career double-figure kills matches.
   
The two-time All-American became Washburn's seventh member of the 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club last year.
   
Miesner earned AVCA second team honors in both 2007 and 2005. She also earned first team all-MIAA honors those two years.

Freshman Lacy near the top amongst MIAA hitters, on pace for 2nd highest percentage in WU history
Freshman middle hitter Mollie Lacy is leading the Lady Blues with a .343 attack percentage and that total is the third highest in the MIAA. Her attack percentage is on pace to be the second highest single-season total in school history and the highest for a freshman. Mandi Cox holds the record with a .373 effort in 2005 and the current No. 2 mark is .340 by Dani McHenry in 2003. The freshman record was set by Andi Moran with a .318 mark in 2005.
   
Lacy has started every match and is averaging 2.72 kills per set. In MIAA matches she is averaging 2.78 kills with a .332 attack percentage. Lacy has led Washburn in attack percentage 12 times this year
   
Lacy was named an AVCA High School Senior All-American her final year at Lincoln Pius High School (Neb.) and her team won two state championships her final two years. He club team, NVA 17 Red, was the 2007 national champion and she was named to the all-tournament team.

Shepard second on the team in kills, leads WU during MIAA games
Sophomore outside hitter Ashley Shepard is second on the team with 2.98 kills per set and she leads the team with 3.07 kills a set in MIAA matches. She has been the team leader in points 10 times and in kills 14 times this year. Shepard has 12 double-figure kill matches this year and five double-doubles.

Net Notes
• Stephanie Nitz moved to 12th at WU with 341 career blocks. She needs 11 more to move into the top 10. October 24 against Truman she had a eight, a season-high for her and the team.
• The Lady Blues are 29-2 this year when opening with a win and they have 24 three-set sweeps. They are 27-0 when opening with two set wins.
• Washburn has 250 wins this decade, making the 2000s the winningest decade in school history. The school's previous winningest decade was the 1980s when the Lady Blues won 249 matches. However, WU had a .487 winning percentage that decade.

Coming up next
The winner of the South Central Region will play in a national quarterfinal against the winner of the South Region on December 4. The location of the game will be chosen from the eight region winners and that school will host the three rounds of the national tournament.on 249 matches. However, WU had a .487 winning percentage that decade.