Missouri Southern Lions (11-5, 1-3 MIAA) Young Gymnasium Joplin, Mo. Tuesday, Oct. 5 7 p.m. Live Stats

Southwest Baptist Bearcats (6-11, 1-4 MIAA) Lee Arena Topeka, Kan. Friday, Oct. 8 7 p.m. Live Stats

Pittsburg State Gorillas (7-10, 1-5 MIAA) Lee Arena Topeka, Kan. Saturday, Oct. 9 4:30 p.m. Live Stats

Complete Game Notes

Previewing Washburn
    The No. 6-ranked Lady Blues resume the MIAA portion of their schedule with three games this week. Washburn is coming off a 4-0 weekend at the Lady Blues Fall Classic. WU had three sweeps and a 3-1 win over the weekend and had four players named to the Fall Classic All-Tournament team.
    Freshman outside hitter Aubri Renshaw leads the WU attack with 2.59 kills per set, while junior Mollie Lacy has a team-high 140 kills. Lacy also sports a team-best .377 attack percentage. Junior Amanda Guess is averaging 9.66 assists per set, while senior Molly Smith leads the Lady Blues with 4.73 digs per set.
    
Scouting the Lions
    Missouri Southern enters the week at 11-5 overall and 1-3 in MIAA play. The Lions were 3-1 over the weekend as they hosted a regional crossover event. MSSU's only loss was a 3-1 MIAA loss at the hands of Central Missouri.
    Ashlee Russell leads Missouri Southern offensively with 3.05 kills per set (168 kills in 55 sets played). She also sports a .318 hitting percentage. Rachel Olinyk is second on the squad with 147 kills and a 2.67 kills/set average. Olinyk is tied for the team lead with Amelia Judge with a .332 attack percentage. Elin Skei is averaging 9.04 assists per set while running the Lion offense. Shakila Balkhi leads MSSU with 208 digs and a 3.85 digs per set average. Russell chips in 2.73 digs per set.

The Series: Washburn vs. Missouri Southern
    The Lions lead the all-time series 34-28, but the Lady Blues have won 17 straight games in the series, all during the Chris Herron era.

Scouting the Bearcats
    Southwest Baptist enters the week with a 6-11 overall mark and 1-4 in conference play. The Bearcats were 0-4 during the Lady Blues Fall Classic over the weekend.
    Ashley Jurgensmeyer leads SBU with 201 kills and a 3.41 kills per set average. She also has a team-high .338 hitting percentage. Brianna Wallace leads the team with 8.92 assists per set and Marcy Greenwade is leading the Bearcats with 3.73 digs per set. Three other players are averaging at least 2.03 digs per set for Southwest Baptist.
    SBU has a bye on Tuesday before coming to Topeka on Friday night.

The Series: Washburn vs. Southwest Baptist
    Washburn leads the series 36-4 and the Lady Blues have won 21 straight in the series dating back to 1999.

Scouting the Gorillas
    Pittsburg State enters the week at 7-10 overall and 1-5 in MIAA play after going 2-2 at the Missouri Southern regional crossover. The Gorillas have dropped four straight MIAA games, the last three in five set matches.
    Topeka native Corrinne Stringer leads the Gorillas with 3.28 kills per set and a .257 attack percentage. She has 223 kills on the season so far. Becca Pearson and Katie Wright are leading Pittsburg State averaging 4.94 and 3.54 assists per set, respectively. Cassie Wilson has a team-high 4.72 digs per set.
    The Gorillas have a bye during the mid-week, but will travel to Emporia State to take on the Hornets on Friday night before traveling to Topeka on Saturday afternoon.

The Series: Washburn vs. Pittsburg State
    The Lady Blues hold a 47-21 lead in the all-time series with the Gorillas after sweeping the season series last year. Washburn has won three of the past four meetings and the Blues are 12-5 against PSU under Chris Herron.

Opposing Coaches
    Chris Willis is in his seventh season as the head coach at Missouri Southern and in his eighth season overall as a head coach. Last season, he led the Lions to a 13-21 overall mark, including 6-14 in MIAA play. His MSSU record stands at 97-117, while his career mark is 111-143.
    Kelly Richardson is in her fourth season leading the Southwest Baptist program. Last season, she led the Bearcats to a 12-24 overall record and a 5-15 mark in the MIAA. Her career record stands at 39-79
    Ibraheem Suberu is in his 12th season at the helm of the Pittsburg State program. His record at PSU stands at 215-178, while his career record in 14 years as a head coach sits at 245-213. In 2009, the Gorillas were 25-11 overall and 14-6 in MIAA play and reached the second round of the NCAA-II South Central Regional.

Last Time Out
    Oct. 2, 2010 - TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Lady Blues cruised to a pair of 3-0 sweeps to finish 4-0 at the 2010 Holiday Inn/Lady Blues Fall Classic. WU downed Tarleton State 3-0 (25-20, 25-9, 25-15) before finishing off Angelo State 25-18, 25-12, 25-14.
    Washburn (16-1) outlasted Tarleton State (13-5) in the first set before dominating the second and third sets to earn the win. Aubri Renshaw, Hillary Hughes and Breanna Lewis all led WU with seven kills apiece. Amanda Guess had 22 assists, while Molly Smith had 14 digs and Renshaw added 12.
    Flynn Harrell led TSU with 12 kills, while Jessie Hartman had a game-high 24 assists.
    In the nightcap, the Lady Blues blitzed Angelo State (7-9) winning convincingly in each set. Lewis led Washburn with 11 kills and a .474 hitting percentage. Mollie Lacy tallied 10 kills, while Guess had 22 assists and Abby Wittman chipped in 11.
    Hughes had a game-high 13 digs and Smith had 12. Washburn hit .310 as a team against ASU and held the Rambelles to a .028 attack percentage.
    Lacy, Lewis, Renshaw and Smith were all named to the Lady Blues Classic all-tournament team for the Lady Blues.
Lady Blues move up one spot in rankings
    A 4-0 record last week was only good enough to bump the Lady Blues up one spot to No. 6 in this week's AVCA top 25 poll. Central Missouri moved up one spot and is the next highest ranked MIAA team at No. 8.
    Truman moved up two spots and into the top 10 at No. 10, while Emporia State dropped four spots to No. 15 after falling to now-No.21 Abilene Christian at the Lady Blues Fall Classic.
    This is the 88th straight week that Washburn has been ranked in the AVCA top 25.

Lady Blues: Statistically speaking
    Washburn ranks third in the MIAA as a team with a .265 attack percentage, but the Lady Blues rank first in the conference holding their opponents to a .112 hitting percentage. WU also leads the MIAA in digs averaging 16.91 per set.
    Individually, Mollie Lacy is second in the league with a .376 hitting percentage, while Aubri Renshaw leads the conference with 0.48 service aces per set and Jessica Fey leads with 1.10 blocks per set. Molly Smith is third in the MIAA with 4.79 digs per set.

Digging her way to the top
    Senior libero Molly Smith has moved into third place on Washburn's career digs list with 1,698 digs. She is 159 digs shy of second place on the career list, which is held by Monica Miesner. Erica Cowhick is WU's all-time leader with 2,464 career digs.
    Smith is closing in on the MIAA top 10 for career digs as well. She is 116 digs shy of 10th place on the conference's career top 10 list.

Herron against ranked opponents
    The Lady Blues are 1-1 this season against ranked teams after splitting a pair of 3-1 matches. Washburn fell to then-No. 16 Truman 3-1 on September 17 in Kirksville and beat then-No. 7 Central Missouri 3-1 in Warrensburg last Friday.
    WU is 40-38 overall against ranked teams under Herron. The Lady Blues are 9-19 against ranked foes away from Lee Arena and are 14-18 against teams ranked in the top 10.

Herron in ninth season at Washburn
    Washburn head coach Chris Herron is 263-50 (.840) in his ninth 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 seven of his eight years, including the last six in-a-row, and he has led WU to its first two MIAA titles.

Notes of Interest:
• Chris Herron improved to 9-0 in season openers and WU has won its last 13 dating back to 1997.
• The last time Washburn lost its season-opener was a 3-1 defeat to Mesa State in 1997.
•The Lady Blues improved to 36-0 in season-opening tournaments under Chris Herron.
• Washburn is ranked No. 6 in the AVCA coaches' poll. The Lady Blues finished the 2009 season ranked No. 8 in the nation. The Lady Blues have been ranked in the top 25 in 88 straight polls.

Coming up next
    The Lady Blues continue MIAA play with two games next week. Washburn will travel to Fort Hays State on Tuesday, October 12 to battle the Tigers before returning home to host Emporia State in the Turnpike Tussle on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Think Pink game set for October 22
    Washburn's home match with Truman State on Friday, October 22 has been dubbed the “Think Pink” game to raise breast cancer awareness. Pink T-Shirts will be handed out to the first 100 fans through the doors and there will be silent auction items to help raise money.