Fort Hays State Tigers (7-25, 3-15 MIAA) Gross Coliseum Hays, Kan. Wed., Nov. 11 7 p.m.

#9 Emporia State Hornets (27-4, 14-3 MIAA) Lee Arena Topeka, Kan. Fri., Nov. 13 7 p.m.

Complete Game Notes

Previewing Washburn
    The No. 8-ranked Washburn Lady Blues wrap up the regular season portion of their schedule with two MIAA contests this week. Washburn will travel to Hays, Kan. on Wednesday to battle Fort Hays State at 7 p.m. The Lady Blues will close out the regular season on Friday at home with the annual Turnpike Tussle against No. 9 Emporia State at 7 p.m.

Scouting the Tigers
    Fort Hays State enters the final week of regular season play with a 7-25 overall mark, including 3-15 in the MIAA under first year head coach Kurt Kohler. The Tigers were 0-2 last week falling 3-2 against Missouri Southern and 3-1 to Southwest Baptist. Fort Hays State has lost seven straight matches.
    FHSU is led offensively by Lilian Rezende with 428 kills and a 3.69 kills per set average. Whitney Liggett runs the offense for the Tigers and has amassed 777 assists this season, good enough for 6.70 assists/set. Tracie Hileman leads the team with 489 digs on the season, while Rezende ranks second with 316.

The Series: Washburn vs. Fort Hays State
    Fort Hays State holds a 44-29 lead in the all-time series, but Washburn has won seven straight in the series and eight of the last nine, including a 3-0 win in Topeka back on October 14.

Scouting the Hornets
    Emporia State enters the final week at 27-4 overall and 14-3 in the MIAA. The Hornets are ranked ninth in this week's AVCA National Poll. ESU went 1-1 last week, falling to No. 22 Pittsburg State 3-1 before rebounding with a 3-0 sweep of Missouri Southern. The Hornets will host Southwest Baptist on Tuesday before traveling to Topeka on Friday. ESU will finish out the regular season on Saturday at Fort Hays State.
    Arica Shepard leads Emporia State with 449 kills on the season and a 4.24 kills per set average. Brittney Miller is second on the team at 3.44 kills per set (361 kills). Ting Liu as 1,255 assists and an 11.84 assists/set. Amy Byfield leads the Hornets with 473 digs, while Shepard is second on the squad with 414.

The Series: Washburn vs. Emporia State
    Emporia State holds a 76-25 series lead over the Lady Blues, after beating Washburn 3-2 in Emporia back on October 16. The teams had split the last six meetings before the October clash. The teams split the season series each of the previous three seasons. Each team has won on their own home floor the past two plus years.

The Opposing Coaches:
    Kurt Kohler is in his first season as the head coach of the Fort Hays State Tigers. He is 7-25 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 126-41 during that stretch.

Last Time Out:
    The ninth-ranked Washburn Lady Blues volleyball withstood a wild third and beat No. 22-ranked Pittsburg State on Saturday afternoon at Lee Arena. Washburn will travel to Hays, Kan. on Wednesday to battle Fort Hays State at 7 p.m.
    Washburn (30-4, 14-4 MIAA) dropped the opening set 25-19, but rallied for a big win in set two. The Lady Blues scored the first seven points of the frame and led by as many as 14 on their way to the 25-11 win.
    Set three started out much like set two with WU grabbing a 7-2 lead early. The Gorillas rallied to tie the match and eventually took the lead and had set point at 24-23. The Lady Blues tied the match and took the lead 25-24. Washburn had seven set points after that and PSU two, before the Lady Blues captured the set 35-33 and took 2-1 lead.
    Washburn rallied from an early deficit in set four and closed out the match scoring 13 of the final 15 points.
    Junior Ashley Shepard had a team-high 13 kills. She was joined in double figures by freshmen Jessica Fey and Jessica Kopp with 12, and sophomore Breanna Lewis with 11 and Mollie Lacy with 10. Senior Kate Hampson recorded her second straight double-double with 53 assists and 18 digs.
    Junior Molly Smith tied her career-high with 27 digs and sophomore Jennifer Kolarik had a career-high 19.
    Corrinne Stringer led Pittsburg State with a match-high 16 kills.

Against Ranked Opponents
     The Lady Blues are 5-4 this season and 37-36 under Chris Herron when facing ranked opponents after beating No. 22 Pittsburg State 3-1 on Saturday. WU split a pair of games two weeks ago against No. 20 UNO and No. 4 UCM. The Lady Blues beat No. 19 Truman 3-0 in Kirksville. WU dropped a 3-2 decision to No. 8 Emporia State on October 16. 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.

A Family Affair
    Washburn junior outside hitter Ashley Shepard will be taking on her twin sister Arica, for the final time in the regular season when the Lady Blues meet Emporia State on Friday night. Ashley is just a junior, but Arica is a senior at ESU.
    Emporia State has won four of the seven meetings 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 last two seasons. The Hornets won the first meeting this season 3-2 in Emporia.
    Ashley sat out most of the 2007 season after suffering a season-ending injury.

Hampson earns fourth Player of the Week Award
    Senior setter Kate Hampson earned her fourth MIAA Specialist of the Week award of the season for her performance in three Washburn wins last week. Hampson averaged 13.40 assists and 3.5 digs per set during a 3-0 week for the Lady Blues. Her 134 assists on the week moved her into 3rd place on the MIAA career assist list with 5,722, just 32 shy of second place all-time. The senior from Fort Collins, Colo., recorded double-doubles in two of the three games, giving her 14 for the season and 52 for her career. Hampson had 39 assists and 10 digs in Washburn's sweep of SBU and a 53 assist/18 dig performance in the Lady Blues' 3-1 win over No. 22 Pittsburg State. She also hit .304 with 10 kills on the week.

Lady Blues move up one spot in AVCA Rankings
    The Lady Blues moved up one spot to eighth in this week's AVCA national poll after going 3-0 last week, including a 3-1 win over No. 22 Pittsburg State. Washburn has now been ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA poll 34 of the last 38 polls.
    Central Missouri moved up one spot to No. 5 and is the highest ranked MIAA school. Emporia State fell behind Washburn into a tie for 9th, while Truman stayed at 19th. Pittsburg State jumped Nebraska-Omaha to 21st and UNO dropped to 22nd.

Washburn standing pat in Regional Rankings
    The Lady Blues were at No. 4 in the NCAA South Central Region Rankings that were released on October 29. Central Missouri was ranked first followed by West TexasA&M and Emporia State. The top eight teams in the regional rankings will qualify for the South Central Regional November 20-22. The next regional rankings will be released on Thursday, November 12

Climbing the charts
    Senior setter Kate Hampson continues to move up the MIAA top 10 list for career assists. She has 5,722 career assists, which is good for third place all-time in the MIAA. She is 32 assists shy of second place on the all-time list.
    Hampson is also Washburn's all-time leader in service attempts with 2,135. She is fifth all-time at Washburn in matches played with 145 and ninth all time having played in 487 sets. She is also 10th in career service aces with 119.

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 319-77 in this, his 11th season as a college head coach. Herron is 244-48 in his eighth season at Washburn.

Herron in midst of eighth season at Washburn
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 244-48 (.836) in his eighth season at Washburn after moving into first in career wins at WU in 2007. Herron recorded his 100th MIAA win against Pittsburg State on Saturday. 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 50 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 80th straight week that Washburn has been ranked in the AVCA Top 25.
• All 16 active players have played in at least 17 sets, with 14 seeing action in at least 31.
• 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 await word on where they will head for the 2009 NCAA-II South Central Regional Tournament.