Game Notes (PDF)

Sitting all alone in first in the MIAA, the fifth-ranked Lady Blues will look to extend their 15-match winning streak when they play three conference matches this week. Tuesday they'll host Northwest Missouri at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena. Friday they travel to Truman for a 7 p.m. match and Saturday they play at Missouri Western in a 1 p.m. match.

The Lady Blues (22-1, 9-0) wrapped up the first half of the MIAA season last week by giving head coach Chris Herron his 300th win at Washburn last Tuesday at Fort Hays State, 3-0 and then by topping then-No. 7 Central Missouri, 3-1 in front of a season-high 1,007 fans at home Friday.

Washburn extended its overall winning streak to 15 straight, its MIAA winning streak to 18 and it's Lee Arena winning streak to 35.

All three of Washburn's opponents this week had strong showings last week but are sitting near .500 in the conference. Northwest Missouri went 2-1 last week to improve to 10-12 and 4-5 in the MIAA. Truman won three times and has won five straight, now with a 16-9 record and 5-4 MIAA mark. The Griffons are 12-11 and 5-5 in the league after also going 3-0 last week.

Second half of MIAA schedule features tough road matches
The top four teams in the current MIAA standings right behind Washburn will host the Lady Blues in the second half of the conference season. Washburn beat all four of those teams at home in the first half of the season.

Washburn will travel to Truman, fourth in the MIAA and No. 5 Missouri Western this week. In the final week of the regular season the Lady Blues will head to No. 2 Central Missouri and No. 3 Emporia State in the final two matches of the season.
Washburn went 9-0 in the first half of the MIAA season, going 5-0 at home and 4-0 on the road.
Wittman earns MIAA honor after pair of double-doubles

Abby Wittman had a pair of double-doubles last week to help her earn her first MIAA specialist of the week honor announced Monday by the conference office. Friday against Fort Hays State she had 21 assists and 13 digs in a 3-0 win for No. 5 Washburn. Friday against seventh-ranked Central Missouri she had 40 assists and 10 digs. She added two kills and an ace.
Wittman shared the award with Central Missouri libero Taylor Krejci, who had 20 digs in the Jennies' loss at Washburn last week.

This is the third MIAA athlete of the week honor the Lady Blues have won this year. Mollie Lacy and Jessica Fey were each named hitter of the week previously.

Lady Blues earn 35th straight top-10 vote
The top four teams in the nation shuffled but Washburn stayed put for the fifth straight week at No. 5 in the AVCA poll release Monday.

The Lady Blues have now been in the top 10 in the AVCA national poll 35 straight weeks and they've been ranked in the top 25 104 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 60 of the last 62 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's 44-match winning streak came to an end at the hands of then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth. The Golden Bears fell from first to fourth in the nation while UMD went from fourth to second in the nation. Tampa moved to No. 1 after being No. 2 previously.

Central Missouri fell just one spot to No. 8 after losing to the Lady Blues. Truman and Emporia State continued to receive votes but fall short of a spot in the top 25.

Herron becomes MIAA's only current 300-match winner
Head coach Chris Herron, in his 10th year at Washburn, earned his 300th victory on the Lady Blues bench last Tuesday at Fort Hays State. Already the school's all-time leader in wins, he is the only active MIAA coach to reach that milestone.

Herron had 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 301. Truman has 298 and Central Missouri has 283. WU, TSU and UCM all have 129  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.

Washburn went .389 in its first 12 years of DII and since then, Herron has led the Lady Blues to an .850 winning percentage, winning at least 26 matches every year. That winning percentage is the highest amongst all MIAA schools since he started.
At 301-53 (.850) in his 10 years, he holds the school records for total victories and winning percentage. He's 376-82 (.821) 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. (NCAA Coaching Records PDF)

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
Northwest Missouri is 10-12 overall and sixth in the MIAA at 4-5. The Bearcats went 2-1 last week.

Brooke Bartosh leads the team with 2.85 kills a set and Whitney Mason leads with a .258 attack percentage.

Washburn is 35-19 all-time against the Bearcats. The Lady Blues won earlier in the year, 3-0 at NWMSU and has won nine of the last 10.

Washburn coach Chris Herron is 20-2 all-time against the Bearcats and 10-0 in Lee Arena.

Truman is 16-9 overall and 5-4 in the MIAA. The Bulldogs have won five straight. They will play at Emporia State Tuesday before hosting Washburn.

Megan Sharpe leads the team with a .332 attack percentage, 2.99 kills a set and 1.14 blocks.

The Lady Blues won in Lee Arena earlier this year and Truman leads the all-time series, 35-12.

Herron is 9-12 against the Bulldogs and the Lady Blues have won five of the last six.

Missouri Western is 12-11 and 5-5 in the league. The Griffons won three straight last week after losing four in a row previously.

Tahler Johnston leads the team with 3.32 kills a set and Alexandra Behnke gets 2.69 while hitting .292 on the year.

MWSU leads the all-time series 43-32 but has lost 19 straight to the Lady Blues.

Herron coached the Lady Blues to all 19 of those wins and has never lost to the Griffons.

Wrapping up last week's action
Washburn went 2-0 last week, getting coach Chris Herron his 300th win at Washburn last Tuesday at Fort Hays State and then topping then-No. 7 Central Missouri Friday.

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.

Hillary 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.

Herron became 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.

Hughes led Washburn with 17 kills and Korie Thompson had a double-double as the Lady Blues topped No. 7 Central Missouri, 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-21) in front of 1,007 fans in Lee Arena Friday night.

The Lady Blues improved to 22-1 and moved into first place in the MIAA at 9-0. The Jennies dropped to 18-4 and 8-1 in the league. They had swept their previous 13 opponents.

Washburn improved its winning streak to 15 straight overall, 18 straight in the MIAA and 35 straight in Lee Arena.

Thompson had her first career double-double with 12 digs and a career-high 11 kills. She also had five blocks.

Wittman ended with 40 assists, one short of the career-high 41 she had against Nebraska-Omaha last week. Kelsey Lewis led the back row with 23 digs and Wittman had a double-double with 10.

Lewis moves closer to 1,000 kills
Breanna Lewis moved within 48 kills of 1,000 after getting 18 kills last week. Now with 952, 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 2.92 kills a set and she's second with a .338 attack percentage. She has 10 double-figure kill matches this year. She recently had a string of six straight double-figure kill matches broken and has since registered nine each in the last three matches.

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 one block 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 1,135 to sit in 13th in school history. She needs 13 more to catch Mandi Cox who had 1,148 from 2004-07.

With 299 total blocks, she needs one more to join the 1,000 kills/300 blocks club. Only seven Lady Blues have earned that distinction. (Lacy's Career Statistics)

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 .368 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 15 straight
The Lady Blues won twice last week to improve their win streak to 15 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. The Lady Blues are 45-7 in sets during the winning streak with 10 3-0 sweeps.

Washburn's school-record winning streak was 27 straight in 2007.

The Lady Blues' current 18-match MIAA winning streak is a school record. They are 9-0 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 35th straight in Lee Arena
Herron improved to 127-13 (.907) in Lee Arena with the comeback win over Central Missouri last week. The Lady Blues have won 35 straight at home with the last loss coming on September 25, 2009, against Central Missouri. They are 10-0 this year and went 14-0 last year.

Net Notes
Freshman Kori Thompson had her first double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs Friday against No. 7 Central Missouri. It was her first match with double-figure kills and fourth double-figure dig match.

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

The Lady Blues were beaten statistically in kills and attack percentage for just the third time this year in their match against the Hornets on October 11. ESU won in kills, 61-60 and in attack, .153 to .127 that night. Washburn is 20-0 when leading in both those categories and 2-1 when not.

Marissa Cox is hitting .380 in MIAA matches with 40 kills and 10 errors in 79 tries. She has played in all nine conference matches but not enough sets to qualify to lead the team.

Washburn improved 3-0 in five-set matches this year. The win October 11 against Emporia State was the third time the Lady Blues had to come back and win in five.

Washburn is 49-40 all-time against ranked opponents under Herron, 17-19 against top-10 teams and 2-3 against No. 1 teams. The Lady Blues are 4-1 this year against ranked teams with the lone loss coming to No. 1 Concordia.

Coming up next
The Lady Blues will play at Missouri Southern on November 1 and then host Southwest Baptist on November 4 and Pittsburg State on November 5. Just one week and three matches will remain on the schedule after that.