Box Score | Season Statistics

The Lady Blues swept Fort Hays State, 25-18, 25-19, 25-23, Tuesday night to give head coach Chris Herron his 300th career win at Washburn.

No. 5 Washburn (21-1, 8-0 MIAA) has now won 13 straight overall and 17 straight in the MIAA. The Lady Blues will put those streaks on the line Friday against seventh-ranked Central Missouri at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena. They will also put their home winning streak of 34 straight matches on the line. That match will be a pink out match and fans are encouraged to wear pink to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Hughes led Washburn with 12 kills while Jessica Kopp and Breanna Lewis had nine each. The Lady Blues hit .248 as a team while the Tigers had a .187 attack percentage.

Abby Wittman had a double-double with 21 assists and 13 digs and Amanda Guess and Gracie Petersen each had 11 assists. Kelsey Lewis led the defense with 17 digs.

The Lady Blues wore the Tigers down in the first set, never allowing them to score more than two straight. Washburn never scored more than three straight but used a 9-4 run midway through the set to go up, 18-11. Two straight kills from Hughes later gave Washburn a 23-15 lead. Mollie Lacy got the Lady Blues to set point with a kill and then Kopp's kill ended the set.

The Lady Blues took a 10-4 lead in the second set and then never let the Tigers get closer than three away. Hughes had three kills in a 4-0 run that made the score 22-14 Washburn before the Tigers answered with a 4-0 run of their own to get within four points. Two kills from Lacy and then one from Breanna Lewis ended the set.

Despite the third set being the closest, Washburn led the entire way. Up 17-11, the Lady Blues gave up seven of the next nine points to FHSU to allow the Tigers within one at 20-19.

Washburn scored three of the next four to force match point before the Tigers scored three straight to make the score, 24-23 Washburn. Korie Thompson got her seventh kill of the match to end it and give Herron win No. 300.

Herron improved to 300-53 (.850) to become the only current MIAA coach with 300 wins. He's already Washburn's all-time leader in wins and winning percentage and this is the second time he's led a team to 300 or more wins. He won 366 matches at Tonganoxie (Kan.) High School.

Herron reached 300 wins in his 10th year and no other MIAA school has won that many matches in the last 10 seasons.