Record: 0-0 Overall
Current Streak: NA
CBS College Sports Network/AVCA National Ranking: No. 2

at
Colorado State-Pueblo Fall Classic
Tournament Web Site

Day	Date	Opponent	Time	Location	Arena	Series Record	Video	Live Stats
Fri	Aug. 29	vs Dixie State (0-0)	12 p.m.	Pueblo, Colo.	Massari Arena	1st Meeting	None	None
Fri	Aug. 29	vs Colo.-Colorado Springs (0-0)	4 p.m.	Pueblo, Colo.	Massari Arena	WU leads 3-0	None	None
Sat	Aug. 30	at Colorado State-Pueblo (0-0)	11 a.m.	Pueblo, Colo.	Massari Arena	WU leads 1-0	None	None
Sat	Aug. 30	vs Angelo State (0-0) | ASU Notes	3 p.m.	Pueblo, Colo.	Massari Arena	WU leads 1-0	None	None

Lady Blues get 40th season under way with four matches at CSU-Pueblo Fall Classic
The second-ranked Lady Blues will begin their 40th season of volleyball and head coach Chris Herron will start his seventh season as they get underway at the Colorado State-Pueblo Fall Classic Friday and Saturday in four matches. Washburn will play Dixie State at noon Central time and then take on Colorado-Colorado Springs at 4 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday the ThunderWolves will host the Lady Blues at 11 a.m. and then WU will wrap up the first weekend of action with a 3 p.m. match against Angelo State.
   
Washburn returns All-America outside hitter Monica Miesner for her senior year and All-America setter Kate Hampson for her junior year. Also returning is all-MIAA middle hitter Stephanie Nitz and seven other letterwinners. Six freshmen join the mix, including high school All-American Mollie Lacey.
   
The Lady Blues went 38-4 and finished first in the MIAA West Division last year with a 12-1 conference mark but fell in the conference tournament semifinal. They then went on to win the NCAA South Central Region tournament and host the final three rounds of the national tournament. Washburn advanced past the quarterfinal with a win over top-ranked Tampa and then fell in the semifinal to Western Washington. The Lady Blues were No. 3 in the final national poll last year.

Notes of Interest:
• Chris Herron is 6-0 in season openers and WU has won its last 10.
• Washburn is ranked No. 2 in the national preseason poll, its highest ranking ever. Last year the Lady Blues finished ranked third.
• This is the second straight year Washburn returns a pair of All-Americans to the court. Monica Miesner and Kate Hampson both return after earning All-America honors last year.
• Colorado-Colorado Springs went 20-12 last year and advanced to the NCAA tournament.

About the Colorado State-Pueblo Fall Classic teams
The Lady Blues will take on one team with a winning record that went to the NCAA tournament and three teams that finished 2007 with a losing record.
   
Washburn will open with Dixie State, a team in its first full year as an NCAA Division II school and member of the Pacific West Conference. DSCU was picked to finish last in the seven-team PacWest preseason poll after going 7-23 overall last year.
   
Colorado-Colorado Springs went 20-12 last year and advanced to the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round. The Mountain Lions were picked sixth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason poll. Washburn defeated UCCS 3-0 last year in the Rockhurst Classic.
   
Host school Colorado State-Pueblo was 7-20 last year and is picked 11th in the RMAC this year while Angelo State was 6-21 last year and is picked ninth in the Lone Star Conference poll this year.
   
Washburn holds a 3-0 lead over UCCS in the series record and 1-0 leads over Angelo State and CSUP. This will be the first meeting between WU and Dixie State.

Lady Blues earn school's highest ranking in AVCA preseason poll
After finishing the season ranked No. 3 last year, the Lady Blues earned the No. 2 national ranking in the CBS College Sports Network/AVCA national preseason poll released Tuesday. Washburn trailed defending champion Concordia-St. Paul in the voting and was ahead of four other MIAA teams in the top 25.
   
The Lady Blues received 830 points while Concordia had 897 points and 35 of 36 first place votes. Truman was in third with 780 points. Emporia State was ranked 11th, Central Missouri was 13th and Pittsburg State was 17th to give the MIAA five top-20 teams. Additional 2008 opponents Nebraska-Omaha, Dowling and Central Oklahoma received votes but were not ranked.
   
The No. 2 ranking is the highest in school history after WU climbed as high as third last year. This is the 13th straight week WU has been in the top 10 and the 55th straight time being in the top 25, dating back to week one of the 2004 season.

Washburn picked second in MIAA preseason coaches poll
The Lady Blues were picked to finish second in the MIAA in the preseason coaches poll. Washburn returns two All-Americans and experience at every position from a team the went 38-4 last year and finished third in the nation. Truman was voted to win the league with 93 points and five first place votes while Washburn received 88 points and two first place votes. Pittsburg State was third.

Once again, Lady Blues return a pair of All-Americans
For the second straight year the Lady Blues will return two All-Americans from the previous year to the court. Monica Miesner returns for her senior year after earning her second career All-America award and Kate Hampson is back for her junior year after earning her first All-America honor last year.
   
Miesner earned AVCA second team All-America honor last year as an outside hitter and in 2005, her sophomore year, she was also a second team AVCA All-American. She moved into the top 10 in career kills (1,229) and digs (1,399) at Washburn last year and she became just the seventh Lady Blue to join the 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club. She will enter the year with the chance to move into the top two in both those career categories.
   
Hampson is third in career assists at Washburn with 3,200 and she is 715 away from first. Last year she set the school single-season record with 1,928 assists and her 12.55 per set in her two years is also a school record.

Herron begins seventh season as school's career wins leader
Washburn head coach Chris Herron brings a 184-38 (.828) record into his seventh season at Washburn after moving into first in career wins at WU last year. He is a three-time MIAA coach of the year and last year he was named AVCA South Central Region coach of the year.
   
Herron has been a huge part of the Lady Blues program turn-around. Before he came to WU in 2002 the Lady Blues had never gone to the NCAA national tournament and they had a .389 winning percentage in 12 years as an NCAA II school. Herron has won 83 percent of his games and has led WU to the NCAA postseason five of his six years and he has led WU to its first two MIAA titles.

Herron unbeaten in season openers
Chris Herron is 6-0 in season openers at Washburn, having won all six in tournaments on the road. Washburn has won its last 10 season openers with the last loss cominng in 1997 against Mesa State.

New Rules – 25-point sets with 12 subs
NCAA women's volleyball will no longer play 30-point games. Instead, teams will play to 25 points and the term game will be changed to set. If needed, the fifth set will still be played to 15 and all sets still must be won by at least two points.
   
Along with those changes, coaches will only be allowed to use 12 subs per set instead of the 15 previously allowed.

NCAA and MIAA postseason play shifted this year
Washburn and the MIAA will now be grouped with the Heartland Conference and the Lone Star Conference in all sports when the NCAA region tournament berths are announced at the end of the season. The region will still be called the South Central Region.
   
The MIAA will also change with the East and West divisions dissolving. All 11 teams will play each other twice throughout the year with the best record earning the conference crown. Last year an eight-team tournament was held with the top four teams in each division. Washburn won the MIAA West Division the two years it was in play.

Season Preview: The Outside Hitters
The Lady Blues' most decorated returning player will be senior outside hitter Monica Miesner, a two-time All-American after earning a second team American Volleyball Coaches Association honor last year. Miesner joined the Washburn 1,000 kill club last year and will enter the year in the top 10 in kills with 1,229 and digs with 1,399. Miesner was second on the team with 3.46 kills per set and 4.41 digs.
   
Sophomores Ashley Shepard and Caitlin Conley will look for the other starting spot as an outside hitter. Conley had a good freshman year after playing in more than two thirds of the sets and finishing fifth on the team with 217 kills and 2.01 per set.
   
Shepard will return after missing most of last year with a medical redshirt after injuries from a torn ACL in 2006 forced her to the bench early in 2007. In 2006, her freshman year, she was fourth on the team with 271 kills.
   
Herron is also bringing in two freshmen, Jennifer Kolarik and Courtney Wallman. Kolarik is from Overland Park, Kansas, where she helped Bishop Miege High School to top three finishes all four years, including a state title her freshman year. Wallman is from Filley, Nebraska, and was the team leader in kills her last two years at Beatrice High School, earning a second team all-state honor her final year.

Season Preview: The Rightside Hitters
Filling the shoes of three-time All-American Tessa Jones won't be easy, but Herron returns one sophomore to the spot and brings in an NCAA Division I transfer and a high school standout who is already an All-American.
   
Ali Ward will begin her second year at WU after having the best spring of any Lady Blue in terms of improvement. Along with her skills, Ward improved her fitness with a four-inch increase in her vertical leap since fall.
   
Mollie Lacey comes to Washburn from Lincoln, Nebraska, and Pius X High School. She ended her prep career with an AVCA High School Senior All-America award and was just one of two recipients of that award to commit to an NCAA II school.
   
Lacey helped her high school to state titles her final two years, earning all-state honors both years. Her senior year she set the school record with 452 kills and had a career-record 160 blocks.
   
After spending a season at Texas A&M, Breanna Lewis will return to Topeka and join the Lady Blues. She played in just six matches last year and will be a freshman after taking a medical redshirt. Lewis, the tallest on the team at 6-5, was a two-time all-state player at Seaman High School and she hit .451 her senior year with 3.64 kills per set.

Season Preview: The Middle Hitters
The Lady Blues will return two with experience to the middle hitter spot while two freshmen will also look to earn playing time at the spot.
   
Senior Stephanie Nitz will return to the middle after a great spring. Herron noted an improvement in her work ethic since last year and said that she has shown confidence and maturation and should be able to accept a leadership role. Nitz led the team and was fifth in the MIAA with 1.25 blocks per set as she earned all-conference honorable mention. She was fourth on the team with 2.32 kills per set and third with a .299 attack percentage.
   
Sophomore Kelci Wigger saw limited playing time throughout her first year but managed to get into almost every match and finished with 0.50 blocks a set.
   
Freshman Jessica Wade is a native of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where she helped Siloam Springs High School to three state titles and was named state tournament MVP her senior year. Her last two years she was named all-state. If she can adjust to the speed of the college game and increase her intensity then she will battle for playing time.
   
Herron might also play Lacey in the middle as she excelled there in high school.

Season Preview: The Liberos/Defensive Specialists
Senior Stephanie Holub and sophomore Molly Smith earned playing time as defensive specialists last year as Erica Cowhick, the school's leader in every dig record, played her final season as libero. Smith played in all 42 matches while Holub entered just half of them as she fought an injury.
   
Smith averaged 2.15 digs a set and led the team with 36 service aces while Holub accounted for 0.87 digs a set.
   
Carolyn Raynes will begin her senior year with the opportunity to move from setter to a defensive specialist after showing her ability to play well and attack from the back row. In her career as a setter she has averaged 1.27 digs and 0.72 kills a set.
   
Kolarik could also see some time as a defender while playing primarily as an outside hitter. Herron noted her great ball control and hopes she can use that on the back row.

Season Preview: The Setters
Herron will have strong depth at setter with an All-American returning and a freshman who was her team MVP.
   
Kate Hampson returns as the only junior on the team. She earned Daktronics second team All-America honor last year and her 1,928 assists was a school record. She moved to third in her career with 3,200, just 615 away from the school record.

Herron's only problem is that freshman Amanda Guess has the same personality and plays faster while Hampson plays stronger and taller.

Guess was a three-time all-conference honoree at Blue Springs High School in Blue Springs, Missouri. Last year she was team MVP and averaged 9.1 assists and 2.6 digs per set.
   
Raynes may also get back into the setting mix as she plays her final year. She's 12th at WU with 953 assists and needs 206 to move into the top 10.

Season Preview: The 2008 Season Schedule
The Lady Blues will go on the road to play in three tournaments to start the season and the Lady Blues Classic will stand as the only non-conference matches played in Lee Arena.
   
With Nebraska-Omaha joining the conference, each of the 11 teams will play each other twice, giving the Lady Blues 10 other home dates and 14 totals
   
Last year the conference had five schools make the NCAA tournament and all five finished in the top 25 poll. Pittsburg State, which had the fifth best record in the conference, finished 18th in the nation and Washburn, with the second best conference record, led three MIAA teams in the national top 10 at No. 3.
   
Midway through the year Washburn will host the Lady Blues Classic, a 10-team event that features five teams that played in last year's NCAA tournament. Washburn will then play its final 15 matches of the regular season before hoping to receive its fifth straight berth in the NCAA tournament and sixth in seven years under Herron.     The NCAA South Central Region tournament will be played from November 20-23 and then the three rounds of the NCAA national tournament will be played December 4-6.

Coming up next
The Lady Blues will continue their stretch of playing their first 11 matches on the road as they play four times in a tournament at Missouri-St. Louis September 5-6. On September 6 Washburn will play against former assistant coach Trent Jones, now the head coach at UMSL.