Missouri Southern Lions (12-16, 5-9 MIAA) Young Gymnasium Joplin, Mo. Tues., Nov. 3 7 p.m.

Southwest Baptist Bearcats (10-21, 3-12 MIAA) Lee Arena  Topeka, Kan. Fri., Nov. 6 7 p.m.

#22 Pittsburg State Gorillas (21-9, 11-5 MIAA) Lee Arena  Topeka, Kan. Sat., Nov. 7 2 p.m.

Complete Game Notes

Previewing Washburn
    The No. 9-ranked Washburn Lady Blues inch closer to the conclusion of the MIAA and regular season portion of their schedule with three games this week. The Lady Blues are coming off of a 1-1 week. Washburn beat No. 20-ranked Nebraska-Omaha 3-0 before falling at fourth-ranked Central Missouri 3-0. WU will take on Missouri Southern on Tuesday in Joplin before returning home to host Southwest Baptist on Friday at 7 p.m. and 22nd-ranked Pittsburg State on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Lee Arena.

Scouting the Lions
    Missouri Southern enters the week with a 12-16 overall record and a 5-9 mark in the MIAA. The Lions were 1-1 a week ago falling 3-0 to Truman State before beat Missouri Western by that same score. Missouri Southern is ranked ninth in the latest NCAA South Central regional poll that was released last Thursday.
    MSSU is led by Jeanna Feldmann and Renee Rheinecker with 368 (3.29 kills/set) and 352 (3.20 k/s) kills, respectively. Elin Skei leads the Lions with 1195 assists and a 10.58 assists per set average. Kari Hammerbacher leads the team with 427 digs on the season and a 3.78 digs per set average.

The Series: Washburn vs. Missouri Southern
    Missouri Southern leads the all-time series 34-28, but Washburn has won the last 16 meetings between the two schools, including a 3-1 win in Lee Arena earlier this season.

Scouting the Bearcats
    Southwest Baptist enters the week with a 10-21 overall mark and a 3-12 conferene record. The Bearcats dropped three matches a week ago. They fell 3-0 to Truman State, 3-1 to Missouri Western and 3-2 to Northwest Missouri in succession.
    SBU is led by Ashley Jurgensmeyer and Alex Smith with 339 and 320 kills, respectively. Jurgensmeyer leads the team with a 2.83 kills per set average. Brianna Wallace has 1080 assists on the season and a 9.08 assists per set average to lead the Bearcats. Southwest Baptist had three players with at least 300 digs and are led by Lauren Noble's 352 digs and 3.59 digs/set average.

The Series: Washburn vs. Southwest Baptist
    The Lady Blues hold a 35-4 series lead over the Bearcats and have won 20 straight in the series. Washburn defeated Southwest Baptist 3-0 back on October 9 in Bolivar, Mo.

Scouting the Gorillas
    22nd-ranked Pittsburg State enters the week of play with a 21-9 overall mark and stands at 11-5 in conference action. The Gorillas were 3-0 last week with wins over Missouri Western (3-1), Northwest Missouri (3-0) and Truman State (3-0) and they have won seven straight matches since their last loss. That last loss was a 3-1 loss to Washburn on October 10 at John Lance Arena.
    Pamela Cartegena leads PSU with 446 kills on the season and a 4.09 kills per set average. She had 16 kills in the first meeting between the two schools. Corinne Stringer is second on the squad with 357 kills and a 3.25 kills per set average, she had 19 kills in the first match against the Lady Blues. Emily Vosseler has 1262 assists on the season and averages 11.37 assists per set. Cassie Wilson leads the Gorillas with 528 digs on the season.

The Series: Washburn vs. Pittsburg State
    Washburn holds a 47-21 lead in the all-time series with the Gorillas. Washburn beat PSU 3-1 back on October 10 in Pittsburg. The two teams split last season's games and Washburn has won eight of the past 10 meetings

The Opposing Coaches:
    Chris Willis in in his sixth year leading the Lions of Missouri Southern. His record at Missouri Southern stands at 85-107, while his career record stands at 99-133.
    Kelly Richardson is in her third year at the helm of the Southwest Baptist program. Her career mark stands at 31-65.
    Ibraheem Suberu is in his 11th year at Pittsburg State and his 13th season overall. His mark at PSU stands at 204-166, while his career record is 234-201.

Last Time Out:
    The eighth-ranked Washburn volleyball team fell to No. 4 Central Missouri 3-0 on Friday night in Warrensburg in a battle of top 10-ranked teams. The Lady Blues will look to get back on the winning track on Tuesday night at Missouri Southern at 7 p.m.
    Washburn (27-4, 11-4 MIAA) fell behind early in set one and couldn't recover. The Jennies (27-4, 13-2 MIAA)  jumped out to a 10-5 lead before WU rallied to tie the set at 17. UCM won the next two points and eight of the final 11 for the 25-19 win.
    Set two was a back-and-forth battle with Central Missouri seizing control behind a quick 4-0 run to take a 12-9 lead. The Jennies led by four at 21-17, but Washburn rallied for four straight points to tie the set. UCM responded with three straight points of their own and won set two 25-22.
    The third and final set saw Central Missouri jump out to a big early lead at 17-9. Five straight Washburn points, including two kills by junior Ashley Shepard, made it 17-14. UCM led 19-15 when the Lady Blues went on a 5-0 run behind two kills and a block from Shepard to snare a 20-19 lead. The Jennies rallied again, scoring three straight to regain the lead at 22-20 and they closed out the match with a set three final of 25-22.
    Senior Kate Hampson led Washburn with a double-double of 36 assists and 10 digs. Sophomore Breanna Lewis had a team-high 12 kills followed by Shepard with 11 and freshman Jessica Fey with 10. Junior Molly Smith had a match-high 21 digs.
    Paula Harris led UCM with 15 kills and Caitlin Pankratz recorded a double-double with 40 assists and 10 digs.

Against Ranked Opponents
     The Lady Blues are 4-4 this season and 36-36 under Chris Herron when facing ranked opponents after splitting a pair of games this past week against No. 20 UNO and No. 4 UCM. The Lady Blues beat No. 19 Truman 3-0 in Kirksville two weeks ago. 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.

Lady Blues drop one spot in AVCA Rankings
    The Lady Blues fell one spot to ninth in this week's AVCA national poll after going 1-1 last week against a pair of ranked opponents. Washburn has now been ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA poll 33 of the last 37 polls.
    Central Missouri dropped two spots to No. 6 and is the highest ranked MIAA school. Emporia State hurdled Washburn and moved up to spots to seventh, while Truman dropped one spot to 19th and Nebraska-Omaha stood pat at 20th. Pittsburg State moved up two spots to No. 22 after re-entering the poll last week. The MIAA has six teams ranked in this week's poll.

Washburn standing pat in Regional Rankings
    The Lady Blues stayed put 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 5,588 career assists, which is good for sixth place all-time in the MIAA. She is four assists shy of fifth place on the all-time list and 53 assists shy of fourth place.
    Hampson is also Washburn's all-time leader in service attempts with 2,082. She is sixth all-time at Washburn in matches played with 142 and 10th all time having played in 477 sets. She is is nearing the top 10 in several other categories, including 11th in career service aces with 116.

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 315-76 in this, his 11th season as a college head coach. Herron is 240-47 in his eighth season at Washburn.

Herron in midst of eighth season at Washburn
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 241-48 (.834) 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 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 79th straight week that Washburn has been ranked in the AVCA Top 25.
• All 16 active players have played in at least 14 sets, with 13 seeing action in at least 32.
• 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 will finish up the regular season next week with a road game at Fort Hays State on Wednesday and the annual Turnpike Tussle with Emporia State on Friday in Topeka. The FHSU match will begin at 7 p.m., as will the Turnpike Tussle in Lee Arena.