Record: 13-1 Overall
Current Streak: Won 1
AVCA National Ranking: No. 4

Day	Date	Opponent	Time	Location	Arena	Series Record	Video	Live Stats
Wed	Sept. 24	Nebraska-Omaha (6-7, 2-1 MIAA) | Game Notes	7 p.m.	Topeka, Kan.	Lee Arena	UNO 2-1	Here	Here
Fri	Sept. 26	at No. 15 Central Missouri (13-3, 4-0)	7 p.m.	Warrensburg, Mo.	UCM Multipurpose Building	UCM 39-8	Here	Here

Lady Blues welcome MIAA newcomer UNO before heading to No. 15 Central Missouri
The Lady Blues will continue MIAA action as they return home Wednesday to host Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena. They will then play at No. 15 Central Missouri Friday at 7 p.m. in the UCM Multipurpose Building. The match against the Mavericks (6-7, 2-1 MIAA) will be the just the fourth in the series history and the first since UNO joined the MIAA this year.

Live video will be available for free at themiaa.tv for both matches. Live stats will also be available by clicking the link above.
   
The Lady Blues went 2-1 last week to begin conference play and they are 13-1 overall. They beat Northwest Missouri and Missouri Western but fell for the first time this year at then-No. 11 Truman.
   
UNO also went 2-1 with a loss at Pittsburg State while the Jennies (13-3, 4-0 MIAA) went 3-0 and will play at Emporia State Wednesday before hosting the Lady Blues.

Notes of Interest:
• Washburn fell to fourth in the latest national poll. This is Washburn's 17th straight week in the top 10 and 59th straight week in the top 25.
• Monica Miesner is 32 digs away from moving into second in WU career history. She starts the week with 1,373 digs.
• Washburn had a 12-match winning streak broken with a loss at Truman last week. The streak was two wins short of tying the school record for season-opening winning streaks.
• Freshman Mollie Lacy is second in the MIAA with a .368 attack percentage and Washburn leads the MIAA hitting .265 as a team.

About this week's opponents
Nebraska-Omaha is 6-7 overall and 2-1 in the MIAA. The Mavericks are playing their first season as members of the conference after playing in the North Central Conference previously. This will be the fourth meeting in school history between the two with UNO holding a 2-1 advantage in the series. The two met in 2006 with the Lady Blues winning 3-1. UNO won in 2003 and 1981.    Ellen Thommes is second on the team with 3.17 kills per set and she leads the team and MIAA with a .397 attack percentage. Kayla Jansen leads the back row with 4.38 digs a set and that total is fifth in the conference. The setting duties are split between Emily Myers with 9.68 per set and Jamie Tooley with 5.89 a set.
   
Central Missouri is 13-3 and 4-0 in the MIAA. The Jennies and Washburn will meet for the 48th time with UCM leading the series 39-8. Washburn has won the last three and five of the last six. Paula Harris leads the team and MIAA in points with 4.12 per set and she's third with a .356 attack percentage. She also leads her team with 3.46 kills per set.

Lady Blues fall one spot to fourth in national poll
For the second straight week the Lady Blues fell one spot in the poll as they slipped to fourth in the AVCA Division II national ranking released Monday. The poll sets up a top-15 match, Washburn's second in as many weeks, as the Lady Blues will play at No. 15 Central Missouri Friday at 7 p.m.

Washburn (13-1, 2-1 MIAA) went 2-1 last week, falling to then-No. 11 Truman in five sets on Friday. The Bulldogs stayed put at 11th while West Texas A&M jumped WU for third in the country. Concordia-St. Paul stayed at second and Cal State-San Bernardino remained No. 1. Other MIAA teams in the poll are Emporia State at 12th and Pittsburg State at 17th.

This is the 17th straight week WU has been in the top 10 and the 59th straight time being in the top 25, dating back to week one of the 2004 season. WU was No. 2 in the first three polls of the year.
    
Lady Blues continue dominance in Lee Arena
Washburn went 17-1 in home matches last year and is 1-0 this year after defeating Northwest Missouri State last week. The Lady Blues went 52-12 in sets at home last year with 11 three-set sweeps. The only loss was a four-set defeat from Western Washington in the NCAA national semifinal.

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 had 518 fans in its home opener last week.

Herron approaches 200th win at Washburn
Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 197-39 in his seventh season with the Lady Blues, making him three wins away from his 200th. He is already the school's career leader in wins and his .835 winning percentage is also the school's highest.

Overall, Herron is 272-68 in 10 seasons with an .800 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.

Miesner moves up career digs and kills chart
Monica Miesner is third at Washburn with 1,595 digs and she's 32 away from tying for second with Shanna Haslett, who had 1,627 digs from 1988-90.

She's also eight kills away from moving into seventh in WU career history. Miesner has 1,373 kills and Susan Waller had 1,381 from 1988-90.

Miesner has 58 career double-doubles and needs nine more to tie assistant coach and All-American Dani (McHenry) Schmidt for first in WU history. She already has 83 double-figure dig matches, the second most in school history, and she's fourth with 69 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. She is looking to become one of two Lady Blues to be in the top five in both kills and digs at WU, joining Angie (Simon) Bittner.

Miesner earned AVCA second team honors in both 2007 and 2005. She also earned first team all-MIAA honors those two years.

Freshman Lacy has big week to open MIAA play
Freshman middle hitter Mollie Lacy is leading the Lady Blues in their three MIAA matches with 2.91 kills per set and a .406 attack percentage. She reached double figures in all three matches and hit .643 against Northwest Missouri and .500 at Missouri Western.

Lacy has led Washburn in attack percentage in seven of the 14 matches this year. She's had double-figure kills five times and has hit .400 or better seven times.

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.

Hampson continues climb up career assists chart
Junior setter Kate Hampson has 3,647 career assists at Washburn, putting her third in school history. She needs 106 to move to second at WU and 268 to catch Lindsey Kersting, the school leader with 3,915 from 1999-02.

Hampson, the only junior on the team, set a school single-season record with 1,928 assists last year. This year she has 447 and is averaging 9.51 per set. She entered the year as the school leader with 12.55 per set.

Hampson has 68 30-plus assists matches, the second highest total at Washburn while Kersting holds the record with 73.

Net Notes
• Stephanie Nitz moved to 13th at WU with her 300th career block. She needs five more to move to 12th.
• Washburn leads the MIAA with 1.32 service aces per set.
• Washburn enters the week as one of three teams that are in a tie for third in the MIAA at 2-1. Emporia State is second at 3-0 and Central Missouri is first at 4-0. Overall, Washburn and ESU are the only one-loss teams in the conference, each at 13-1.
• Washburn has 233 wins this decade. The school's winningest decade was the 1980s when the Lady Blues won 249 matches. However, WU had a .487 winning percentage that decade. WU has a .761 winning percentage this decade.

Freshmen lead Lady Blues to 3-1 win at Missouri Western
Three freshmen led a Lady Blues offense that hit .324 as a team as No. 3 Washburn won, 3-1 (25-15, 25-12, 21-25, 25-14), at Missouri Western last Saturday. Jessica Wade led the Lady Blues with a season-high 13 kills and she hit .524 while Mollie Lacy added 11 kills with a .500 attack percentage. Breanna Lewis had eight kills and the three freshman combined to hit .473 with 32 kills. Kate Hampson had 44 assists for Washburn and Monica Miesner led the defense with 17 digs. Molly Smith had 15. Wade also led the team as she got in on four of Washburn's six blocks.

Truman comes out on top to hand Lady Blues their first loss
The Lady Blues couldn't hold a 2-1 set lead as they fell in five sets (25-20, 22-25, 16-25, 25-18, 15-11) at then-No. 11 Truman Friday night to drop their first match of the season. For the second straight year WU's regular season match at TSU went five sets. This time the Bulldogs held off Washburn's rally. They went up 1-0 after a closely-fought first set and then WU won the next two to go up 2-1. The Bulldogs won easy in the fourth set and then erased a 4-1 Washburn lead in the fifth set to win. The loss ended Washburn's season-opening winning streak at 12 matches, two shy of the school record. Monica Miesner and Ashley Shepard each had double-doubles as they tied for the team lead with 13 kills. Miesner had 26 digs and Shepard had 10. Molly Smith added a career-high 24 digs and Washburn ended the night with 97 as a team. Stephanie Nitz led the Lady Blues with six blocks while Breanna Lewis had four. Lewis and Lacy also reached double figures in kills with 10 and 11, respectively. Lacy led with a .250 attack percentage.

Shepard and Lacy lead over-powering Lady Blues in MIAA opener
Ashley Shepard had 13 kills and hit .464 and Mollie Lacy hit .643 as the Lady Blues beat Northwest Missouri State, 25-19, 25-17, 25-17, last Wednesday in Washburn's home opener and both teams MIAA opener. Shepard was error-free in 28 attempts while Lacy had 10 kills with one error in 14 tries. The two also led the team with three blocks each. Breanna Lewis had nine kills with an error in 16 attempts to hit .500 and setter Kate Hampson had 39 assists and led the Lady Blues offense to a .376 attack percentage. Monica Miesner had seven kills and joined Molly Smith on defense with 16 digs each to lead the team as the Lady Blues held the Bearcats (3-9, 0-1 MIAA) to a .161 attack percentage. Washburn out-dug NWMSU 63-46 and had 52 kills to the Bearcats' 37. Washburn had just eight attack errors in the match but nearly matched that with six service errors. Jennifer Kolarik led the team with two aces.

Coming up next
The Lady Blues will take a break from MIAA play and host their final non-conference matches of the season in the Lady Blues Fall Classic September 3-4 in Lee Arena. Ten teams from the South Central Region will play 20 matches on two courts.