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Washburn head coach Chris Herron will go for his 300th win on the Lady Blues bench when Washburn plays at Fort Hays State Tuesday at 7 p.m. and then hosts No. 7 Central Missouri at 7 p.m. Friday. Friday's match will be a pink out match. Fans are encouraged to wear pink and Washburn's SAAC will be raising money for cancer research.

The fifth-ranked Lady Blues are 20-1 this year and have won 12 straight overall. They have won 34 straight in Lee Arena and they've won 16 straight MIAA matches. Those are both school records. They picked up two home wins last week, 3-2 on Tuesday against Emporia State and 3-1 Friday against Nebraska Omaha.

Fort Hays State is 13-9 overall but just 3-6 in the MIAA. Central Missouri brings a 17-3 record to Emporia State Tuesday before coming to Topeka Friday. The Jennies are tied with Washburn at 7-0 in the MIAA.

Herron is 299-53 (.849) in his 10th year at Washburn. He's already the winningest coach in school history and the winningest active MIAA coach. No other MIAA program has more wins than him in the last 10 years.

Pink Out Match
Fans are encouraged to wear pink to Friday night's volleyball match. The  Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is sponsoring it as a pink out match to raise awareness for breast cancer. As they will for the entire month of October, the Lady Blues will be wearing their pink jerseys. Pink Washburn volleyball t-shirts will be given out prior to the match. SAAC will be selling cookies and raffling off a signed volleyball and t-shirt. The money raised will benefit cancer research.

Lady Blues earn 34th straight top-10 vote
Once again, the AVCA national poll's top five remained unchanged, leaving Washburn at No. 5 in the poll released Monday.
The Lady Blues are the top one-loss team in the nation as the four teams ahead of them are unbeaten. They have now been in the top 10 in the AVCA national poll 34 straight weeks and they've been ranked in the top 25 103 straight times. They stayed in the top 10 all last year being ranked as high as second and as low as ninth throughout the year. They were also in the top 10 every week of the regular season in 2009 after a No. 11 spot in that preseason poll.

Washburn has been in the top 10 in 59 of the last 61 AVCA polls. They have been ranked in the poll every week since the start of the 2004 season and there have only been 10 weeks that they weren't ranked since Chris Herron began in 2002, including his first seven weeks.

Concordia Saint Paul, the only team to beat Washburn this year, remained the No. 1 team in the nation. Central Missouri stayed put at No. 7 and Emporia State and Truman continued to earn votes but no ranking.

Herron going for 300th win at Washburn this week
Head coach Chris Herron, in his 10th year at Washburn, is one victory short of 300 on the Lady Blues bench. Already the school's all-time leader in wins, he is looking to become the only active MIAA coach to reach that milestone.

Herron has already coached a team to 300 wins in his career. He coached Tonganoxie High School to a 366-88 record in 13 seasons.

Since he got to Washburn 10 years ago, no other MIAA team has more wins than him in those 10 years. He leads with 299. Truman has 295 and Central Missouri has 281. WU and UCM have 127 MIAA wins in the last 10 years.

Herron inherited a Washburn program that had just three winning seasons in its first 13 years as an NCAA II school and member of the MIAA. Right away, Herron turned Washburn into a contender by winning the league in 2002, his first year. (Herron's Complete Bio)

Washburn went .389 in its first 12 years of DII and since then, Herron has led the Lady Blues to an .849 winning percentage, winning at least 26 matches every year. That winning percentage is the highest amongst all MIAA schools since he started.
At 299-53 (.849) in his 10 years, he holds the school records for total victories and winning percentage. He's 374-82 (.820) in his career including three years at NAIA Benedictine (Kan.).

Herron started the year seventh with an .814 winning percentage among active NCAA II coaches with at least five years experience. He was 30th in career victories with 279. Herron's winning percentage was 17th amongst all coaches in all divisions with at least five years experience.

Herron's win total is highest among active MIAA coaches. He is the second-highest tenured coach in the MIAA behind Pittsburg State coach Ibraheem Suberu who has coached the Gorillas for 13 years.

About this week's opponents
Fort Hays State is 13-9 overall and 2-6 in the MIAA. The Tigers are 11-3 in non-conference matches and 5-2 at home.

Jenna Ullrich was named MIAA hitter of the week after she had 19 kills last week against Missouri Western with a .531 attack percentage.

She leads the team with a .270 attack percentage and is averaging 2.30 kills a set. Kylee Hoagland leads the team with 2.66 kills a set.

Washburn is 32-44 all-time against Fort Hays State but has won the last 10 straight, all since FHSU joined the MIAA. Herron is 11-2 against the Tigers and 10-0 against them in MIAA matches.  The last loss for Washburn was in 2004 in Hays.

Central Missouri is 17-3 and tied with the Lady Blues at 7-0 in the MIAA. The Jennies host Emporia State Tuesday before coming to Topeka Friday. The Jennies lost their opener to No. 1 Concordia St. Paul and then lost to Southwest Minnesota State and Tampa. They have won 12 straight since then.
UCM hasn't lost a set in MIAA play.

Allie Huffman averages 3.97 kills and 2.71 digs a set and has a .351 attack percentage. Paula Harris hits .425 with 3.52 kills and 0.97 blocks a set.

UCM is 44-11 against the Lady Blues all-time. Washburn fell to the Jennies in last year's NCAA South Central Region championship but swept the regular season matches.

Chris Herron is 10-13 against UCM and 7-3 in Lee Arena.

Wrapping up last week's action
The Lady Blues won a pair of comebacks to improve to 20-1 and 9-0 at home. They extended their home winning streak to 34 straight matches.

The first installment of the Turnpike Tussle went the same way both of last year's did with the fifth-ranked Lady Blues getting a 3-2 (25-22, 18-25, 25-27, 25-17, 15-12) win over Emporia State last Tuesday night in front of 855 fans at Lee Arena.

Breanna Lewis had 17 kills and hit .351 with five blocks. Hillary Hughes had her seventh double-double of the year with 11 kills and 16 digs and Kelsey Lewis dug up 24 ESU attacks.

Kelsey Lewis played libero the first three sets before moving to outside hitter in the final two. Sami McHenry moved to libero and ended with 13 digs. Lewis had three kills while attacking.

Wittman had 37 assists and 16 digs for a double-double and Fey ended with 10 kills and a team-high five blocks.

Five different Lady Blues had eight kills or more as they overcame a 1-0 deficit for a 3-1 (21-25, 27-25, 25-11, 25-17) win over Nebraska Omaha Saturday evening in Lee Arena.

Mollie Lacy led Washburn with 14 kills and she hit .444 with one error in 27 attacks. Jessica Fey had 12 kills with a .476 percentage and Hughes had a double-double with 10 kills and 19 digs.

Breanna Lewis totaled 13 kills and a team-high four blocks. Jessica Kopp and Korie Thompson had eight kills each.
Washburn hit .241 as a team. Wittman set 40 assists and Amanda Guess had 14.  Wittman added a double-double with 18 digs.

Lewis moves closer to 1,000 kills
Breanna Lewis moved within 66 kills of 1,000 after getting 26 kills last week. Now with 934, she will be looking to join teammate Mollie Lacy as the newest member of the Washburn 1,000 kill club. Lewis would be the 15th member of that club.

Lewis leads the Lady Blues this year with 2.96 kills a set and she's second with a .346 attack percentage. She has 10 double-figure kill matches this year including six out of the last seven.

Lewis was named the MVP of the Lady Blues Fall Classic after leading the tournament field with a .394 hitting percentage. With those four matches and a match Tuesday at Newman, she averaged 3.72 kills and 3.89 points a set during the week. She had a career-high 26 kills that Saturday in the five-set match against No. 20 Angelo State as Washburn overcame a 2-0 deficit. Also Saturday, she hit .500 with 13 kills against Tarleton State.

Lacy 7 blocks from 1,000 kills/300 blocks
With her 10th kill September 9 against Colorado-Colorado Springs in the opener of the Colorado Premier Challenge, Mollie Lacy became Washburn's 14th member of the 1,000 kill club. She now has 1,121 to sit in 13th in school history. She needs 1,148 to catch Mandi Cox who had 1,148 from 2004-07.

With 293 total blocks, she needs seven to join the 1,000 kills/300 blocks club. Only seven Lady Blues have earned that distinction.

The last time a Lady Blue reached 1,000 kills was when Monica Miesner, Tessa Jones and Cox all reached 1,000 in 2007. Cox is the last to also total 300 blocks.

Lacy is also at the top of the WU career chart with a .369 attack percentage. Her first three single-season totals are in the top four in school history and she set a school record with a .405 percentage in 2009 to become the only Lady Blue to hit .400 or better. Mandi Cox is second on the career chart with a .326 attack percentage.

Lacy was an honorable mention All-American her sophomore year and she's earned all-MIAA all three years, including first team honors her sophomore and junior year.

Washburn moves win streak to 13 straight
The Lady Blues won twice last week to improve their win streak to 13 straight matches. Washburn  won its first seven matches before falling to No. 1 Concordia St. Paul on September 10. The Lady Blues have won every match since then. Washburn's school-record winning streak was 27 straight in 2007.

The Lady Blues' 16-match MIAA winning streak is a school record. They are 7-0 this year and they won their last nine in the league last year. The previous record was 13 straight in 2005.

Washburn's last loss in an MIAA match was October 19, 2010 at Northwest Missouri.

Lady Blues win 34th straight in Lee Arena
Herron improved to 126-13 (.906) in Lee Arena with two wins last week. The Lady Blues have won 34 straight at home with the last loss coming on September 25, 2009, against Central Missouri. They are 9-0 this year and went 14-0 last year.

Net Notes
Kori Thompson had career highs of eight kills, 16 digs and a .300 attack percentage Saturday against UNO. She had four of those kills in the fourth and deciding set.

Abby Wittman set a career high with 41 assists against UNO. Kelsey Lewis had a career-high 25 digs.

Jessica Fey is hitting .398 in Washburn's five road games this year. She's averaging 3.00 kills and 0.88 blocks a set.

The Lady Blues were beaten statistically in kills and attack percentage for just the third time this year in their match against the Hornets. ESU won in kills, 61-60 and in attack, .153 to .127 Saturday night. Washburn is 18-0 when leading in both those categories and 2-1 when not.

Breanna Lewis is hitting .390 in MIAA matches.

Washburn improved 3-0 in five-set matches this year. The win Tuesday against Emporia State was the third time the Lady Blues had to come back and win in five.

Washburn is 48-40 all-time against ranked opponents under Herron, 16-19 against top-10 teams and 2-3 against No. 1 teams after the loss to Concordia and victory over Metro State.

Coming up next
Washburn will continue MIAA play with a match at Lee Arena October 25 against Northwest Missouri State. The Lady Blues will then play on the road October 28 at Truman and October 29 at Missouri Western.