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Micro-Blogging The Blues
(Around 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season)
• Washburn is No. 4 in this week's poll and Central Missouri is No. 7. This is Washburn's 115th straight time in the ranking #NationalRecognition
• This will be the 9th straight time WU and UCM have played as top-10 teams and the 26th straight time they've both been ranked #ToughSeries
• Sr. OH Hillary Hughes became the eighth member of the 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club last weekend #EliteClub
• Jessica Fey got her 1,000th kill last week and she's 3 blocks away from becoming the 9th member of the 1,000 kills/300 blocks club #EliteClub
• Chris Herron earned his 400th career win as a head coach Sept. 28 at FHSU. Last year he celebrated his 300th win at Washburn #CareerMilestone
• Herron is in his 11th year at WU with a 330-56 record. He's got nine NCAA appearances, 4 MIAA titles and 15 All-Americans #GreatDecade

MIAA Action On The Road
SBU match Friday and top-10 match Saturday at UCM finish week for No. 4 Lady Blues
After starting the week by winning their 47th straight home match Tuesday against Missouri Southern, the fourth-ranked Lady Blues will finish the week with two MIAA matches on the road. Friday they'll play Southwest Baptist at 7 p.m. and Saturday they'll play No. 7 Central Missouri at 7 p.m. This will be the ninth straight time Washburn and UCM have played as top-10 teams and 26th straight time they've played as ranked opponents.

The Lady Blues won all four matches last weekend in their yearly Fall Classic and then swept the Lions to improve to 19-1 and 6-1 in the MIAA. The Bearcats went 3-1 in their SBU Crossover and are 8-13 overall and 1-6 in the MIAA. The Jennies have won 12 straight after starting the year 3-3 and are 15-3 overall and 7-0 in the league. They won twice during the Peggy Martin Challenge and will host Northwest Missouri Wednesday before welcoming Washburn in the middle of its seven-match home stand.

The Lady Blues saw two seniors, Hillary Hughes and Jessica Fey, reach the 1,000 kill mark in their careers last weekend and Hughes became the eighth player to reach that, as well as the 1,000 dig mark. Fey is three blocks away from becoming the ninth player to get 1,000 kills and 300 blocks.

Approaching Elite Club Membership
Fey looking for 300th block after getting 1,000th kill last week
Senior middle hitter Jessica Fey has 1,023 kills and 287 blocks as she looks to become the ninth player to get 1,000 kills and 300 blocks.

Fey became the 17th Lady Blue to reach 1,000 kills as she had 12 against Harding on Saturday. Mollie Lacy was the last to get 1,000 kills and 300 blocks, reaching that milestone last year.

Fey entered the season fourth in career hitting percentage with a .306 attack. She's hitting .403 this year and is currently averaging a .324 attack through her four years, good enough for third in school history. Her senior year attack percentage would be good enough for second best in Washburn single-season history.

Hughes Also Joining Elite Club
Hillary Hughes becomes ninth member of 1,000 kills/1,000 digs club
Hillary Hughes cemented herself in Washburn volleyball history when she got her 1,000th kill Friday against Southeastern Oklahoma State, making her the eighth Lady Blue to get 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career. She got her 1,000th dig September 29 at Nebraska-Kearney.

Hughes now has 1,026 kills, putting her 16th in school history and she's 17th with 1,055 digs. The last player to get 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs was Monica Miesner while playing from 2004-08.

400th Career Win
Head coach Chris Herron earns his 400th career win
Washburn's 3-0 win September 28 at Fort Hays State gave head coach Chris Herron his 400th career win in his 14th season as a head coach. He's now 405-85 (.827) overall and 330-56 (.855) in 11 seasons at Washburn.

Herron entered the year fourth in NCAA history with an .821 winning percentage among DII coaches with at least 10 years experience.

114 Straight In The Polls
Lady Blues remain fourth in AVCA national poll
The top seven teams in the AVCA national ranking remained unchanged as Washburn stayed fourth in this week's poll.

The Lady Blues earned their 115th straight ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and their 46th straight in the top 10. They have been in every weekly poll since week one of the 2004 season and they have been in the top 10 going back to week one of 2009.

UNK remained No. 1 while MIAA opponent Central Missouri remained seventh. The top four teams in the poll are from the Central Region, as are six of the top seven.

School Record Winning Streak At 47 Home Matches
Busy stretch at home adds five more wins to streak
• The Lady Blues have a school record as they have won their last 47 matches in Lee Arena with perfect home records in each of the last three years, counting their 8-0 start this year.
• Their last loss in front of the home crowd was against Central Missouri on September 25, 2009. They went all of 2010 and 2011 without a loss.
• Chris Herron is 139-13 (.914) coaching in Lee Arena.
• Washburn has won 62 of its last 63 home matches and 78 of its last 80.

About Coach Chris Herron
Head coach Chris Herron building solid program in 11th season
• Head Coach Chris Herron is 330-56 (.855) in his 11th season at Washburn and 405-85 (.827) in 14 years overall as a head coach.
• He's won more games (330) in the last 11 years than any other program that has been in the MIAA during that time. Truman is second with 318.
• He's turned Washburn volleyball completely around. The program went 169-265 (.389) in its first 12 years as an MIAA school from 1990-2001 and had never been to the NCAA tournament.
• Herron has earned Washburn its first 11 NCAA tournament appearances and four conference titles.
• In his first 11 years he's had at least one All-American each year but his first. He has seen his players earn 15 All-America awards include three first-teamers.
• Herron won a conference title in 2002, his first year with the Lady Blues and they hosted the NCAA region tournament in their first trip to the event.
• He was named MIAA coach of the year in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2011 and AVCA region coach of the year in 2007.
• His 2007 squad advanced out of the NCAA region tournament for the first time in school history and hosted the NCAA national tournament. Washburn made it to the semifinal and finished ranked third in the nation.
• The 1980 College of the Ozarks graduate went 75-29 in three years at Benedictine before coming to Washburn.

This Week's Opponents
Lady Blues have dominated history against SBU while UCM series has mostly been in Jennies' favor
The Lady Blues are 40-4 all-time against Southwest Baptist and they haven't lost to the Bearcats since 1998. Chris Herron is 19-0 coaching against them.

Washburn and Central Missouri have met eight straight times as top-10 opponents with UCM holding a 5-3 advantage. They've also played 25 straight times when they were both ranked anywhere in the AVCA poll and UCM holds a 10-15 advantage during that stretch. The Jennies are 12-47 all-time against Washburn after winning the first 22 matches in the series.

Net Notes
Final points...
• Jessica Kopp had a streak of eight straight matches with 10 or more kills ended when she had eight against Missouri Southern, still enough to tie for the team lead that night. • • During that eight-match streak, she averaged a team-best 3.54 kills a set while hitting .318 in the matches.
• Jessica Fey was named the Lady Blues Classic MVP after she hit .520 during the four matches. She hit .786 against Southeastern Oklahoma with 11 kills and no errors in 14 attempts and she hit .632 against Southwestern Oklahoma. She reached double figures in kills in three of the contests.
• Hillary Hughes and Kelsey Lewis each had eight aces during the Fall Classic. Hughes had four against Southern Nazarene and then she went on to tie her career high with five against Missouri Southern on Tuesday.
• Hillary Hughes moved all alone to sixth in Washburn history with her 31st career double-double, passing Tessa Jones (2005-07) on the list and putting her one away from fifth. • She's eighth with 49 career double-figure kill matches and eighth with 46 double-figure dig matches.
• Hughes and Fey became the eighth and ninth players Chris Herron has coached to 1,000 kills. Washburn also put two players in the 1,000 kills club last year.
• Abby Wittman is 43 assists away from her 2,000th as she's currently eighth in school history with 1,957 in her third year. She would become the eighth player to reach 2,000 assists at Washburn.
• Fey is second in the MIAA with a .368 attack percentage and Marissa Cox is fourth with a .351 mark. Fey is fifth with 3.29 kills a set and Hughes is ninth with 2.98 a set. Fey's hitting percentage is ninth in the nation and Cox is 45th.

Coming Up Next...
Washburn returns home to host two more
The Lady Blues will return home to host Northwest Missouri October 19 at 7 p.m. and then Missouri Western the next day at 2 p.m. Just one more home match will remain after that before the conference tournament.