Game Notes
Tournament Home Page
(links to live stats are on the tournament home page and will go live before game time)

The fourth-ranked Lady Blues will head to Denver, Colo., for the Colorado Premier Challenge hosted by Regis and Metro State Friday and Saturday. Washburn (4-0) will play Colorado-Colorado Springs at 1 p.m. Central Time Friday and then play West Florida at 8 p.m. that night. Saturday's action will be determined by Friday's results.

The 12-team tournament features four pools of three teams that will play each other in a round-robin format Friday. Washburn, UCCS and UWF are in Pool IV. The winners of each pool will then form a four-team Gold bracket Saturday while the No. 2 and No. 3 teams from each pool will form Silver and Bronze brackets, respectively.

Washburn is making its second appearance in the Premier Challenge. The Lady Blues won both their Friday matches in 2006 but were swept the next day. Saturday could feature some tough matchups as Washburn is joined by four other AVCA ranked teams including No. 1 and defending national champion Concordia St. Paul.

The Lady Blues won all four matches last weekend in the Midwestern State Invitational and they have gone undefeated in their opening tournaments in each of the last 10 years. They will be trying to go at least 8-0 for the fourth consecutive year.

Lady Blues earn 28th straight top-10 vote
Washburn moved up a spot to No. 4 in the AVCA national poll released Monday.  The Lady Blues have now been in the top 10 in the AVCA national poll 28 straight weeks. They stayed that way 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 53 of the last 57 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.

Washburn joins three other MIAA schools in this year's preseason poll. Central Missouri dropped from No. 2 to No. 8 after going 2-2 last weekend. Emporia State is 17th and Truman is 22nd.

Herron begins 10th season of complete turnaround at Washburn
Head coach Chris Herron begin his 10th season at Washburn 17 victories short of 300 on the Lady Blues bench. Herron inherited a 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 .845 winning percentage, winning at least 26 matches every year. That winning percentage is the highest amongst all MIAA schools since he started.

At 283-52 (.845) in his 10 years, he holds the school records for total victories and winning percentage. He's 358-81 (.815) 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 in the MIAA. He is the second-highest tenured coach in the MIAA behind Pittsburg State coach Ibraheem Suberu who has coached the Gorillas for 13 years.

Lady Blues play in 2nd Premier Challenge
The Lady Blues will be making their second trip to Denver for the Colorado Premier Classic after they played in the tournament in 2006. The 12-team tournament features pool play on the opening day and then bracket play the second day. Washburn is in Pool IV with Colorado-Colorado Springs and West Florida. Each of the three teams in the four pools will play each other Friday. The No. 1 seeds from all four pools will form a bracket Saturday, as will the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.

Washburn won both its matches in the 2006 round of pool play. The Lady Blues topped Abilene Christian and Metro State to earn a No. 1 seed but they fell to Florida Southern and Concordia St. Paul during bracket play.

About This Week's Opponents
Washburn is in Pool IV with Colorado-Colorado Springs and West Florida and will be looking for a pair of wins against them Friday to move into the Gold bracket on Saturday.

West Florida entered the preseason ranked 18th but went just 1-3 last weekend at the University of Indianapolis Invitational. The Argos only win came against then-No. 14 Indianapolis on Friday. Middle hitter Lindsay Homme was named to the all-tournament team after she averaged 3.75 kills a set with 12 blocks in the four matches. Outside hitter Autumn Duyn averaged 3.94 kills a set. The Lady Blues are 1-2 against West Florida. The Argos ended Washburn's season in the 2006 NCAA tournament and WU topped them in their own tournament in 2004.

Colorado-Colorado Springs went 2-2 at the West Texas A&M Lady Buff Invitational. Middle hitter Megan Koop was named to the all-tournament team for the Mountain Lions after having a .407 attack percentage. Washburn is 4-0 against UCCS.

The rest of the field features very tough competition. No. 1 and defending NCAA champions Concordia St. Paul is in Pool II. No. 6 Southwest Minnesota State is in Pool I with No. 9 Metro State. No. 16 Seattle Pacific is in Pool III. Concordia won its final 22 matches last year and its first four this year heading into the tournament.

Concordia went 32-4 last year with two of its loses coming at the Premier Challenge. Wayne State (Neb.) won the tournament.

Wrapping up the Midwestern State Invitational

• Mollie Lacy and Jessica Fey were named to the all-tournament team. Lacy hit .407 and averaged 3.31 kills a set. Fey hit .33 with 2.31 kills and 0.92 blocks a set.
• Sophomore Abby Wittman started all four matches at setter after starting just twice last year. She averaged 7.08 assists per set and 3.92 digs. Amanda Guess subbed in each match to average 4.23 assists and 1.46 digs.
• Fey had a career-high .750 attack percentage Friday when she had nine kills with no errors in 12 attacks.
• Washburn and head coach Chris Herron have now gone 4-0 in every season-opening tournament in the last 10 years.
• Lacy moved to 10th in WU history with her 45th double-figure kill match after having three at MSU.

Already school record-holder in hitting percentage, Lacy just 10 kills from 1,000
With 990 career kills, senior middle hitter Mollie Lacy will enter the Premier Challenge just 10 kills shy of becoming the 14th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club. With 238 total blocks, she would then need 62 to join the 1,000 kills/300 blocks club. (Lacy's Career Statistics)

Lacy is also at the top of the WU career chart with a .374 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.

Lacy Named MIAA Hitter of the Week
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Washburn senior middle hitter Mollie Lacy was named the co-MIAA Student-Athlete of the Week in the hitter category after she dominated play in the Midwestern State Invitational last week.
Lacy averaged 3.31 kills per set and hit .401 in four matches. She reached double-figure kills in final three matches. She had seven blocks in the opener and averaged 0.77 per set. Lacy finished with 3.69 points per set.

She hit .481 with 16 kills Saturday against Nova Southeastern and hit .421 with 11 kills against MSU.
Lacy pushed her career kill total to 990 and needs 10 more to become the 14th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club.

Lacy and the fifth-ranked Lady Blues will look to win the Colorado Premier Challenge as they play two matches Friday in pool play and then two in bracket play Saturday.

The honor was shared with Emporia State's Courtney Haring and Truman's Abby Moser was named specialist of the week.

Washburn picked second in MIAA preseason poll
The defending MIAA champion Lady Blues were picked second in the preseason MIAA coaches poll released in August by the conference office.

In 2010, the Lady Blues won a school and MIAA record-tying 18 conference games en route to the third league championship in program history. They finished the season 32-3 and qualified for the NCAA tournament for the seventh straight year and eighth time overall under head coach Chris Herron. The Lady Blues advanced to the South Central Region final for the second time in school history.

Washburn trailed Central Missouri in the preseason rankings for the top spot. The Jennies received nine first-place votes with 81 points. Washburn was second with one first-place vote and 73 points. The Lady Blues were followed by Truman with 65 points, Emporia State with 50 points and Pittsburg State with 47 points. Northwest Missouri was sixth with 39 points followed by Missouri Southern with 34 points, Missouri Western with 30 points. Southwest Baptist was ninth with 22 points and Fort Hays State was tenth with nine points.

Net Notes

• Washburn is the only MIAA team to survive the opening weekend undefeated. Five teams suffered just one loss.
• Mollie Lacy has started 111 of 113 matches in her four-year career. She has appeared in all but one match, missing one last year.
• Every Lady Blue that will suit up this year made an appearance last week. Freshman Shelby Mayer will redshirt and senior Corrinne Stringer has to sit out after transferring from Pittsburg State last year.