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The No. 5 Lady Blues earned their eighth straight trip to the NCAA tournament and ninth overall as they were announced Sunday night as the No. 2 seed in the South Central Region. Washburn (30-2) will play seventh-seeded Arkansas Tech Thursday in Warrensburg, Mo., at 2:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to Friday's regional semifinal at 5 p.m. The championship match will be Saturday at 7 p.m. and the winner will advance to the December 1-3 NCAA national tournament at a site to be determined.

The Washburn-ATU winner will play the winner of the No. 3 West Texas A&M/No. 6 Arkansas-Fort Smith match. Those two teams will open the tournament Thursday at noon. The other two quarterfinal matches are No. 4 Angelo State/No. 5 St. Edward's at 5 p.m. Friday and No. 1 Central Missouri/No. 8 Abilene Christian at 7:30 p.m.

Arkansas Tech won the Great American Conference championship to earn its second trip to the NCAA tournament. The Golden Suns (35-3) also went in 2000.

Washburn NCAA Tournament history
The Lady Blues are 9-8 (.529) in their eight NCAA tournament appearances. They made their first trip in 2002 and returned in 2004 and have been every year since. They are 5-3 in first round games, winning their last two. They are 8-7 overall in regional play and 1-1 in national tournament play, advancing out of the region in 2007 and hosting the eight-team national tournament, finishing as semifinalists.

Washburn has never faced Arkansas Tech in the NCAA tournament. They are 1-4 against Central Missouri, 1-0 against Abilene Christian and 0-1 against West Texas A&M.

Series history with Arkansas Tech
Washburn is 3-2 all-time against Arkansas Tech and Chris Herron is 3-0 against the Golden Suns. The two last met in 2006 in the Arkansas Tech Spikefest with WU winning 3-0. The two also met in the Nebraska Omaha Classic in 2003 and the Henderson State Tournament in 2002 with Washburn getting sweeps.

Lady Blues clinch share of MIAA
The Lady Blues defeated Emporia State 3-1 Saturday to finish the MIAA at 17-1 and clinch a share of the conference title. Central Missouri also finished 17-1 and the two split their season series. This is the second straight year the two shared the title.

Washburn also won MIAA titles in 2005 and 2002. The four titles is tied for the most that any school has won in the 10 years that Chris Herron has been Washburn's coach.

Washburn's .944 winning percentage in the MIAA is the highest in school history. The Lady Blues went 15-1 (.938) in 2005.

Lady Blues drop one spot in AVCA poll, remain top team in region with 38th straight top-10 vote
The Lady Blues dropped just one spot in the AVCA national poll released Monday, falling from fourth to fifth. Despite being the No. 2 seed in this week's NCAA South Central Region tournament, Washburn remained the highest nationally-ranked team in the region, ahead of tournament host Central Missouri (No. 6).

Washburn held the NCAA top spot in every ranking this year until the final seeds were announced Sunday. The Lady Blues dropped a match Friday at Central Missouri, just their second of the year, and then bounced back Saturday to beat Emporia State and clinch a share of the title. UCM and Washburn split their season series but the Jennies were chosen as the top seed and tournament host.

Other ranked teams in the region include No. 13 West Texas A&M and No. 18 Angelo State.

The Lady Blues have now been in the top 10 in the AVCA national poll 38 straight weeks and they've been ranked in the top 25 107 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 63 of the last 65 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.

Lady Blues win 39th straight in Lee Arena; seniors wrap up Lee Arena action with just one loss
Herron improved to 131-13 (.924) in Lee Arena with a win on Senior Night against Fort Hays State on November 8. The Lady Blues have won 39 straight at home with the last loss coming on September 25, 2009, against Central Missouri. They went 14-0 this year and went 14-0 last year. If they aren't chosen as NCAA national finals host, they will look for their 40th straight at the beginning of next year.

The five seniors that were honored last Tuesday during Senior Night went 55-1 (.982) in their four years at Lee Arena.

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 October 18 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 309. Truman has 302 and Central Missouri has 291. WU and UCM have 137 MIAA wins in the last 10 years. Truman has 133.
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 .852 winning percentage, winning at least 25 matches every year. That winning percentage is the highest amongst all MIAA schools since he started.
At 309-54 (.851) in his 10 years, he holds the school records for total victories and winning percentage. He's 384-83 (.823) 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.

Wrapping up last week's action
Breanna Lewis had 18 kills and Mollie Lacy had seven blocks as No. 4 Washburn came back for a 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-16) win over Fort Hays State Tuesday night in Senior Night in Lee Arena.

Lewis had 18 kills and hit .483 as she, Lacy, Amanda Guess, Courtney Wallman and Jennifer Yoder played their final regular season matches in Lee Arena. The five were honored for their achievements including 124 total wins and just one loss at home in their four years.

The Lady Blues jumped to 5-1 leads in the first and third sets but couldn't hold any of them as they were swept 25-16, 25-23, 25-22 Friday night at No. 7 Central Missouri. The Lady Blues fell for just the second time this year, leaving Saturday's ESU regular season finale as the last chance to clinch the conference title.

Breanna Lewis led Washburn with 12 kills and hit .375 but the Jennies (26-4, 16-1 MIAA) hit over .300 in all three sets and .319 in the match. Washburn was kept to a .198 attack. The Jennies also held a 9-2 advantage in blocks.

Along with their early leads, the Lady Blues had a chance late to close out the second set and tie the match. They scored three straight to go up 19-17 and then a kill from Mollie Lacy and an ace from Kelsey Lewis gave Washburn a 22-19 lead. The Jennies called timeout and then answered with four straight points and six of the final seven to come back and take a 2-0 set lead. Four of those points were on WU attack errors.

The loss was Washburn's second of the year and second 3-0 sweep. It ended a 22-match winning streak overall and 25-match MIAA winning streak that went back to last year.

In an epic battle at Emporia State Saturday night, the Lady Blues had to score 35 points in the fourth set to clinch a 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 18-25, 35-33) victory and their second straight MIAA title.

Emporia State got to set point at 24-22 in the fourth set looking to force a fifth. Breanna Lewis and then Fey followed with kills to tie it at 24-24 and then Kelsey Lewis had an ace to give the Lady Blues set point. There were nine ties after that before Jessica Kopp set down two straight kills to clinch the match.

Breanna Lewis led the Lady Blues with 19 kills and hit .310 and Jessica Fey had a career-high 17 kills and 10 digs for a double-double, the third of her career. They and Mollie Lacy each had five blocks. Hillary Hughes had a double-double with 14 kills and 11 digs and Jessica Kopp had 10 kills.

Abby Wittman set for Washburn the entire match and had a career-high 62 assists and added 15 digs for a double-double. The Washburn defense dug up 100 ESU attacks and had five players get double-figure digs. Kelsey Lewis led with 23.

About the South Central Region competition
The Lady Blues have played three of the eight teams in the NCAA South Central Region field this year and are 3-1 with a season split with No. 1 UCM and wins over No. 4 Angelo State and No. 8 Abilene Christian. The Lady Blues are 5-2 overall against the entire NCAA field with a loss to Concordia St. Paul and wins against West Florida and Metro State, all in the Colorado Premier Challenge.

Top-seeded Central Missouri is 5-4 against the NCAA field and 3-1 against the regional field. No. 3 West Texas A&M is 5-1 against the NCAA field, all in region. Fourth-seeded Angelo State is 3-5 against the field, all within the region. No. 5 St. Edward's is 4-4 against the NCAA field and 3-3 against the regional field. No. 6 Arkansas-Fort Smith is 2-3 against the NCAA field and 2-2 against the regional field. No. 7 Arkansas Tech is 1-1 against the NCAA field and 0-1 within the regional field. Eighth-seeded Abilene Christian is 1-6 against the NCAA field, all within the region.

WTAMU earned its spot by winning the Lone Star Conference tournament. Arkansas-Fort Smith advanced by winning the Heartland Conference tournament and Arkansas Tech won the Great American Conference to advance. The remaining teams earned at-large bids.

Four South Central teams are in the AVCA national poll released Monday. Second-seeded Washburn is No. 5 in the nation and top-seeded Central Missouri is No. 6. Third-seeded West Texas A&M is No. 13 and fourth-seeded Angelo State is No. 18 in the nation.

Lewis reaches 1,000 kills club
Breanna Lewis became the 15th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club as she totaled 13 in a sweep over Southwest Baptist on November 4. Lewis entered the match needing nine kills to get 1,000. She had Washburn's first three kills in the match and four total in the first set. She then had three early kills in the second set and her second kill in the third set got her to the milestone.
Now with 1,043, she joined teammate Mollie Lacy as the newest member of the Washburn 1,000 kill club. Lewis is the 15th member of that club.

Lewis leads the Lady Blues this year with 3.13 kills a set and a .353 attack percentage. She has 17 double-figure kill matches this year. She finished the regular season reaching double figures in the final three matches. In the last 18, she's gotten at least nine kills in all but one of them. She hit .379 in the final week of the season and averaged 4.45 kills and 0.82 blocks.

With a .323 attack percentage in her four years, she is looking to end her career as one of only three Lady Blues to hit over .300 in their career.

Lacy earns high academic honor; on All-America ballot
Senior middle hitter Mollie Lacy was named to the Capital One Academic All-District first team last week. The award, voted on by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America, is Lacy's second. She earned a first team honor last year and went on to earn academic All-America recognition.

Lacy will go on to the All-America ballot and that team will be announced at the conclusion of the regular season. She carries a 4.00 in nursing at Washburn and is second on the team with a .349 attack percentage, keeping her on pace to end her career as the school's leader in that category.

Lacy joins 1,000 kills/300 blocks club, still holds career attack percentage record
Mollie Lacy became the eighth member of Washburn's 1,000 kills/300 blocks club. She reached that milestone October 25 against Northwest Missouri.  with her 300th block and she currently has 324.

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 1,192 to sit in 12th in school history. She needs 32 more to catch Shanna Haslett who had 1,224 from 1988-90.

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.

Twenty-two match win streak comes to end
The Lady Blues had a 22-match winning streak disrupted in a 3-0 loss Friday at Central Missouri in the final weekend of the regular season. Washburn won its first seven matches of the season before falling to No. 1 Concordia St. Paul on September 10. The Lady Blues won every match after that until the UCM defeat. The Lady Blues were 66-9 in sets during the winning streak with 15 3-0 sweeps.

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

The Lady Blues also had a 25-match MIAA winning streak snapped at UCM. The streak went back to October 19, 2010, and was a school record.

Net Notes
Abby Wittman set a career high with 62 assists Saturday in the four-set marathon at Emporia State to clinch a share of the MIAA title. She added 15 digs for a double-double and was WU's setter in all six rotations. Wittman recently set her previous career high with 45 assists October 28 at Truman. The 62 assists ties for third-most in a four-set match at Washburn, going back to 1999.

Jessica Fey had 17 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the year at ESU Saturday and she added five blocks.

Hillary Hughes is seventh in Washburn career history with 27 career double-doubles. She has 12 this year. Abby Wittman has 15 this year and 22 in her career, the eighth-highest total. Hughes can catch Tessa Jones (2005-07) with three more.

Washburn is 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 49-41 all-time against ranked opponents under Herron, 17-20 against top-10 teams and 2-3 against No. 1 teams. The Lady Blues are 4-2 this year against ranked teams.

Coming up next
The winner of the South Central Region tournament will advance to the NCAA national finals, December 1-3 at a site to be chose among the eight regional winners. That site will be announced on Sunday. Washburn's region is scheduled to play to Central Region winner in a national quarterfinal on December 1.