Fort Hays State Tigers (6-16, 2-7 MIAA) Lee Arena Topeka, Kan. Wed., Oct. 14 7 p.m.

#8 Emporia State Hornets (19-2, 6-1 MIAA) White Auditorium Emporia, Kan. Fri., Oct. 16 7 p.m.

Complete Game Notes

Previewing Washburn
    The No. 7-ranked Washburn Lady Blues play two conference matches this week. Washburn will host Fort Hays State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before taking on Emporia State in the annual turnpike tussle on Friday in Emporia. The Lady Blues are coming off a 3-0 week with a win at home against Missouri Southern and a pair of wins on the road against Southwest Baptist and Pittsburg State.

Scouting the Tigers
    Fort Hays State enters the week 6-16 overall and 2-7 in MIAA play. The Tigers went 1-2 last week with a 3-1 win over Southwest Baptist and a pair of 3-0 losses to Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State. Lilian Rezende is the leading the Tigers with 3.90 kills per set, she also has 228 digs on the season. Whitney Liggett is leading the team with 537 assists, a 6.80 assists per set average. Tracie Hileman leads FHSU with 341 digs on the year.

The Series: Washburn vs. Fort Hays State
    Fort Hays State holds a 44-28 lead in the all-time series, but Washburn has won six straight in the series and seven of the last eight.

Scouting the Hornets
    Emporia State enters the week with a 19-2 overall mark, including 6-1 in conference action and is ranked eighth in this week's AVCA national poll. ESU went 2-0 last week defeating Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern by 3-0 scores. The Hornets are led by Arica Shepard, twin sister of Washburn's Ashley Shepard, with 316 kills and a 4.33 kills per set average. Brittney Miller is second on the team with 239 kills and a 2.80 kills per set average. Ting Liu leads the team with 868 assists and a 11.89 assists per set average. Amy Byfield has 317 digs on the season, good enough for 4.34 digs per set.

The Series: Washburn vs. Emporia State
    Emporia State holds a 75-25 series lead over the Lady Blues. The teams have split the last six meetings, splitting the season series each of the past three seasons. Each team has won on their own home floor the past two years.

The Opposing Coaches:
    Kurt Kohler is in his first season as the head coach of the Fort Hays State Tigers. He is 6-16 in his first season leading the Tigers. He was 89-44 in three seasons as a head coach at the junior college level before taking over at Fort Hays State.
    Bing Xu is in his fifth year leading the Emporia State Hornet volleyball squad. His career and school record stands at 119-39 during that stretch.

Last Time Out:
    The No. 7 Washburn Lady Blues volleyball team picked up a 3-1 victory over Pittsburg State on Saturday night in Pittsburg. Washburn (22-2, 6-2 MIAA) dropped the first set 25-23 before ripping off three straight set wins 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 to earn the victory in John Lance Arena. The Lady Blues will be back in action on Oct. 14 in Lee Arena when they will face Fort Hays State.
    Washburn had three players record double figure kills. Mollie Lacy led the team with 18 kills. The 18 kills tied a season-high for any Lady Blue this season. Breanna Lewis added 13 and Ashley Shepard had 10. Four Lady Blues recorded double figure digs, led by Kate Hampson with 18. Hampson also had a season-high 57 assists. Tessa Brophy added 17 digs, while HIllary Hughes and Molly Smith each had 13.
    For the match, Washburn hit .264 while holding the Gorillas to a .180 hitting percentage. Washburn also outblocked the Gorillas 13.0 to 6.0. Washburn also recorded 90 digs compared to 87 for the Gorillas.
    Corinne Stringer led the Gorillas with 19 kills.

Lady Blues sweep weekly conference honors
    Washburn swept the MIAA weekly Player of the Week awards with sophomore middle hitter Mollie Lacy being named Hitter of the Week and senior setter Kate Hampson earning Specialist of the Week honors. This is the first honor of the season for Lacy and the second straight for Hampson.
    Lacy averaged 4.09 kills per set, 1.09 blocks per set and had a .500 hitting percentage in the Lady Blues' three wins. She had 16 kills against Missouri Southern, 11 against Southwest Baptist and tied her career-high with 18 kills against Pittsburg State. Lacy also tallied 12 blocks during the week, setting a new career-high with seven against PSU.
    Hampson averaged 12.64 assists per set, totaling 139 in the three contests. She had a season-high 57 against PSU to go along with 18 digs for her seventh double-double of the season and 45th of her career. She moved into ninth place on the MIAA's career assists list with 5,323. She also tallied 10 kills on the week and five service aces.

A Family Affair
    Washburn junior outside hitter Ashley Shepard will be taking on her twin sister Arica when the Lady Blues meet Emporia State on Friday night. Washburn and Emporia State have split the six meetings (3-3) since the Shepard twins began playing at each school. Each team won on the road during the girls' freshman season, while each team has won on their own home floor the past two seasons. Ashley sat out most of the 2007 season after suffering a season-ending injury.

Against Ranked Opponents
     The Lady Blues are 2-2 this season and 34-34 under Chris Herron when facing ranked opponents. Washburn defeated then-No. 6 West Texas A&M 3-1 at the Holiday Inn/Lady Blues Fall Classic to even the season record at 2-2. Washburn beat then-No. 19 Truman 3-1 on September 19 before dropping consecutive 3-2 decisions to then-No. 18 Nebraska-Omaha and then-ninth-ranked Central Missouri.
    Washburn was 5-5 against ranked teams last season. The Lady Blues were 5-2 against ranked teams at one point in 2008, but dropped their final three matches of the season against ranked foes.

Lady Blues stand pat in AVCA Rankings
    The Lady Blues stayed put at No. 7 in this week's AVCA national poll. Washburn has now been ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA poll 30 of the last 34 polls.
    Central Missouri stayed at number four and is the highest ranked MIAA school. Emporia State remained eighth. Nebraska-Omaha fell one spot to 16th, while Truman jumped one spot to 20th.

300 Wins
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron recorded career win No. 300 with Washburn's 3-0 win over Eastern New Mexico at the Rockhurst Fall Clasic. His career mark now stands at 311-75 in this, his 11th season as a college head coach. Herron is 236-46 in his eighth season at Washburn.

Climbing the charts
    Senior setter Kate Hampson continues to move up the MIAA top 10 list for career assists. She has 5,323 career assists, which is good for ninth place all-time in the MIAA. She is 152 assists shy of sixth place on the all-time list.
    Hampson is also Washburn's all-time leader in service attempts with 1,979. She is eighth all-time at Washburn in matches played with 135 and she is is nearing the top 10 in several other categories, including 11th in career service aces with 113 career service aces and 11th in sets played with 454.

Herron in midst of eighth season at Washburn
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 236-46 (.837) in his eighth season at Washburn after moving into first in career wins at WU in 2007. He is a three-time MIAA coach of the year and was named AVCA South Central Region coach of the year in 2007
    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 six of his seven years, including the last five in-a-row, and he has led WU to its first two MIAA titles.

Notes of Interest:
• The Lady Blues have 11 players with at least 32 kills
• The Lady Blues set a school-record by winning nine matches to open the season without dropping a set. WU dropped the first set to Upper Iowa before rallying for a 3-1 win. The longest streak before was five matches in 2005.
• Washburn is ranked No. 7 in this week's AVCA national poll. The Lady Blues finished the 2008 season ranked 13th in the nation. It was the first time Washburn had been ranked outside the top 10 since the week one poll of the 2007 season.
• This is the 76th straight week that Washburn has been ranked in the AVCA Top 25.
• All 16 active players have played in at least 10 sets, with 14 seeing action in at least 26.
• Chris Herron is 8-0 in season openers and WU has won its last 12.
• Washburn is 32-0 in eight season-opening tournaments under Herron. The Lady Blues have lost just 14 sets in those 32 matches and only one set in the past two seasons (3-1 win over Dixie State in 2008 season-opener).
• The last time Washburn lost its season-opener was a 3-1 defeat to Mesa State in 1997.
• Washburn opened the season with 13-0 with 13 straight matches away from Lee Arena, the most to start a season in school history. Last season, the Lady Blues started the season 11-0 with 11 straight road contests.

Coming up next
    The Lady Blues continue MIAA play with three games next week. The Lady Blues will host Northwest Missouri State in the Think Pink Game on Tuesday, October 20 at 7 p.m. Washburn will then hit the road and travel to Kirsville, Mo. on Friday to take on Truman at 7 p.m. and St. Joseph, Mo. on Saturday to battle Missouri Western at 7 p.m.