Northwest Missouri Bearcats (11-15, 2-8 MIAA) Lee Arena Topeka, Kan. Tues., Oct. 20 7 p.m.

#19 Truman State Bulldogs (18-8, 6-4 MIAA) Pershing Arena Kirksville, Mo. Fri., Oct. 23 7 p.m.

Missouri Western Griffons (8-15, 1-9 MIAA) MWSU Fieldhouse St. Joseph, Mo. Sat., Oct. 24 7 p.m.

Complete Game Notes

Previewing Washburn
    The No. 9-ranked Washburn Lady Blues play three conference matches this week. Washburn will host Northwest Missouri State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Think Pink game before hitting the road to take on Truman State and Missouri Western. The Lady Blues will meet the Bulldogs on Friday night at 7 in Kirksville, then travel to St. Joseph on Saturday to square off with the Griffons at 7 p.m. With two victories this week, the Lady Blues can secure their eighth consecutive season of 25 or more wins.

Scouting the Bearcats
    Northwest Missouri State enters the week with an 11-15 overall record and a 2-8 conference mark. The Bearcats went 1-2 last week recording a 3-2 win over Missouri Southern and falling to Truman (3-0) and Missouri Western (3-2).  Sara Falcone leads Northwest Missouri with 249 kills on the season and a 2.57 kills/set average. Two other Bearcats have over 200 kills on the season, Alex Hanna (216) and Ashley Mitchell (211).  Laira Akin leads NWMSU with 885 assists on the season, she averages 9.52 assists per set. Paige Spangenberg has 485 digs and 5.00 digs/set average.

The Series: Washburn vs. Northwest Missouri
    Washburn holds a 32-18 advantage in the all-time series with the Bearcats. The Lady Blues have won six straight in the series and 16 of the last 17. WU defeated NWMSU 3-0 in Maryville back on September 16.

Scouting the Bulldogs
    Truman State enters the week sitting at 18-8 overall, 6-4 in the MIAA and ranked No. 20 in this week's AVCA national poll. The Bulldogs were 2-0 last week with wins over Northwest Missouri (3-0) and Missouri Western (3-1). Two players have at least 257 kills for TSU, Megan Sharpe (292) and Lauren Graybeal (257). Sharpe leads the team with a 3.07 kills/set average. Ashley Petak leads Truman with 669 assists and a 6.69 assists/set average. Kylie Easlon has 289 assists. Casey Bruno leads the Bulldogs with 396 digs and a 4.60 digs per set average. Allison Barker (270) and Petak (261) are second and third in digs, respectively.

The Series: Washburn vs. Truman
    Truman State holds a 34-9 edge in the all-time series. Washburn defeated Truman 3-1 on September 18 in Lee Arena. The Lady Blues have won two straight and four of the past five against the Bulldogs.

Scouting the Griffons
    Missouri Western is 8-15 overall and 1-9 in conference play entering the week of competition. MWSU was 1-1 last week with a 3-2 win over Northwest Missouri State and falling 3-1 to Truman State. Kelli Sicner leads the Griffons with 284 kills and 3.34 kills per set. Meghan Voelz is second on the squad with 198 kills on the season. Madison Benton has 641 assists on the year and a 9.16 assists per set average. Sicner and Voelz also lead the team with 201 digs each.

The Series: Washburn vs. Missouri Western
    The Griffons have a 43-28 lead on Washburn in the all-time series, but the Lady Blues have won 15 straight in the series and 17 of the last 20, including a 3-0 win on September 19 in Topeka.

The Opposing Coaches:
    Allison Rogers will be coaching her fourth match as the interim head coach of the Bearcat volleyball team. Rogers took over for Anna Tool who resigned last week. Northwest Missouri is 1-2 since Rogers took over. NWMSU dropped the first two matches of Rogers' tenure before defeating Missouri Southern on Saturday to give Rogers her first career win as a head coach.
    Ben Briney is in his first season at the helm of the Bulldog program. Briney was an assistant coach under Jason Skoch for four seasons before taking the reigns this season. He is 18-8 in his first season as a head coach.
    Cory Frederick is in his first season leading the Griffon volleyball team. His career mark stands at 8-15. Frederick was the head men's volleyball coach at Park University for five seasons before returning to lead Missouri Western, where he served as an assistant coach from 2001-03.

Bouncing Back:
    The Lady Blues will look to get back on the winning track after dropping their last game against Emporia State. Washburn has a 38-8 record following a loss under Chris Herron. WU has lost back-to-back games just seven times during Herron's tenure, including once this season.

Last Time Out:
    The seventh-ranked Lady Blues rallied from two sets down, but fell 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 28-26, 13-15) to No. 8 Emporia State on Friday night at White Auditorium. Washburn is now 0-3 in five set matches this season, all against ranked opponents.
    Washburn (23-3, 7-3 MIAA) dropped the first two sets of the night before rallying to force a fifth and deciding set. The Lady Blues trailed 21-19 and 22-20 in the fourth set, but scored three straight points to take the lead and eventually took the set 28-26 to force set five.
    The Hornets (21-2, 8-1 MIAA) jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the final set. Washburn scored five of the next six points to tie the match at 6. ESU was able to take small leads throughout the final set, but Washburn kept answering, tying the set on five different occasions before the Hornets got the win with the final two points of the match.
    Sophomore middle hitter Mollie Lacy led four Lady Blues in double figure kills, tying her career-high with 18. Sophomore rightside hitter Breanna Lewis had 13 kills, while junior outside hitter Ashley Shepard and freshman outside hitter Hillary Hughes each had 11.
    Senior setter Kate Hampson had a match-high 56 assists to go along with 15 digs. Junior libero Molly Smith was tied for the match-high with 24 digs.
    Brittney Miller led Emporia State with a match-high 20 kills.

Against Ranked Opponents
     The Lady Blues are 2-3 this season and 34-35 under Chris Herron when facing ranked opponents after falling 3-2 to No. 8 Emporia State on Friday night. 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 fall two spots in AVCA Rankings
    The Lady Blues fell two spots to ninth in this week's AVCA national poll after dropping a 3-2 decision to then-No. 8 Emporia State. Washburn has now been ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA poll 31 of the last 35 polls.
    Central Missouri stayed at number four and is the highest ranked MIAA school. Emporia State moved up one spot to seventh, while Nebraska-Omaha fell held steady at No. 16 and Truman jumped one spot to 19th giving the MIAA five teams in the top 25.

Climbing the charts
    Senior setter Kate Hampson continues to move up the MIAA top 10 list for career assists. She has 5,401 career assists, which is good for ninth place all-time in the MIAA. She is 74 assists shy of sixth place on the all-time list.
    Hampson is also Washburn's all-time leader in service attempts with 2,007. She is seventh all-time at Washburn in matches played with 137 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 461.

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 312-76 in this, his 11th season as a college head coach. Herron is 237-47 in his eighth season at Washburn.

Herron in midst of eighth season at Washburn
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 237-47 (.835) 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 nine players with at least 45 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. 9 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 77th straight week that Washburn has been ranked in the AVCA Top 25.
• All 16 active players have played in at least 12 sets, with 14 seeing action in at least 27.
• 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
    Washburn continues MIAA play with two games next week. The Lady Blues will look to avenge their first two losses of the season when they take on Nebraska-Omaha and Central Missouri. UNO comes to Lee Arena on Wednesday (Oct. 28) at 7 p.m. and WU will travel to UCM on Friday (Oct. 30) at 7 p.m.