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Ichablogging Weekly Notes
(Around 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season)
WU is looking for its 1st MIAA tourney title. The Ichabods are 7-7 all-time in 8 appearances. The tourney was held until 2007 and then revived last year.
The Bods are 1-2 against UCM in the tourney and have never played UNK or UCO. WU has played in Warrensburg once in the tourney in a 2004 loss to UCM.
Washburn is 2-3 in the semifinal and 0-2 in the final. The Ichabods played Truman in the 2005 and 2006 finals.
Marissa Cox hit .500 in the MIAA tournament last year and tied a school tournament record with 27 kills against FHSU. She hit .641 that match.
Washburn wrapped up its third MIAA regular season title in the last four years with a 15-1 league record. The Bods and UCM shared those three titles.
Washburn has won five MIAA titles (2002, 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012).
Cox and Wittman were named all-MIAA 1st team this week,
Kelsey Lewis was 2nd team,
Leanna Willer 3rd team and
Corrinne Stringer and
Sarah Vicory HM.
Cox hit .359 last week with 4.78 kills a set to earn MIAA hitter of the week for the second straight week and 5th time this year.
Washburn has won 11 straight matches with sweeps in seven of those contests.
WU beat UNK in 5 sets twice this year and UNK was in the top 10 both times. The Lopers beat WU 3 times last year including once in the NCAA tournament.
The win at UNK last Tuesday was Washburn's first 0-2 comeback since 2011.
Chris Herron earned his seventh straight 30-win season and the eighth in his 12th year.
Abby Wittman is 3rd in career assists with 3,771 & needs 144 to move to second. She's 7th with 8.46 assists per set and 15th with 1,310 digs.
Besides Wittman, only one Washburn setter has at least 2,000 career assists and 1,000 digs (Kate Hampson from 2006-09).
Kelsey Lewis is 11th at Washburn with 1,377 digs and 5th with 3.67 per set.
MIAA tournament moves to Warrensburg as Ichabods play Nebraska-Kearney
No. 8 Washburn won its MIAA postseason tournament first round match against Northwest Missouri Tuesday and will now play 11th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney Friday at 5 p.m. at the UCM Multipurpose Building in a semifinal. The Ichabods are the No. 2 seed in the tournament and UNK is third.
Top-seeded and fifth-ranked Central Missouri is hosting the semifinals and final and will play fourth-seeded Central Oklahoma Friday at 7:30 p.m. The championship match will be Saturday at 7 p.m. and the winner will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region tournament.
The Ichabods swept Northwest Missouri Tuesday while the Lopers swept Missouri Western. UCM swept Pittsburg State and UCO swept Emporia State on the other side of the bracket.
Washburn is 31-4 overall and tied for the MIAA title with a 15-1 record. The Lopers are 27-5 and finished third in the conference with a 12-4 record. Central Missouri is 30-1 and shared the MIAA title with Washburn at 15-1 and Central Oklahoma is 24-9 with a 9-7 record. The Ichabods beat UNK twice this year in two five-set matches and swept UCO twice. Central Missouri swept Washburn in the only meeting to earn the tie-breaker in the tournament seeding.
Live stats and video throughout the weekend are available at wusports.com/live and audio is available at the same site for the UNK match and potential UCM match. There will be a fee for the video.
Cox & Wittman named first team all-MIAA to join four other Washburn honorees
Washburn had six players named to the all-MIAA volleyball teams released Wednesday by the conference office. Junior rightside hitter
Marissa Cox and senior setter
Abby Wittman were named to the first team.
Senior libero
Kelsey Lewis was named to the second team, freshman outside hitter
Leanna Willer was named to the third team and senior outside hitter
Corrinne Stringer and freshman middle hitter
Sarah Vicory earned honorable mention.
Washburn has now had at least one MIAA first-teamer in each of the last five years and the two give head coach
Chris Herron 20 first team selections in his 12 years. Cox, Lewis and Wittman are both earning their second MIAA award as Wittman was named to the third team last year and Cox and Lewis got honorable mention.
Cox entered the week second in the MIAA with a .346 hitting percentage and second with 3.73 kills a set. She's reached double figures in kills seven straight times and 27 total times this year. She's hit .450 or better 10 times this year. Her attack percentage this year would be the sixth highest in school single-season history, five points lower than her .351 percentage last year that is the fifth highest at Washburn.
Wittman moved to third in career assists at Washburn this week, now with 3,771. She's second in the MIAA this year with 11.16 assists a set and first with 1,328 total assists. Both those totals are in the top 10 in Washburn single-season history. Wittman has 22 double-doubles this year.
Lewis is fifth in the conference with 4.50 digs a set and she's reached double figures 31 times. She's also fourth in the league with 0.36 service aces a set. Willer leads all freshmen in the MIAA with 3.19 kills a set and she also averages 3.15 digs.
Corrine Stringer is averaging 2.87 kills a set and hitting .243 while Vicory averages 2.13 kills and 0.89 blocks a set and is hitting .303 this year.
Ichabods climb back into top 10 in latest national poll
The Ichabods earned a No. 8 ranking in the AVCA national poll released Monday after spending the last four weeks ranked 11th and nine straight weeks out of the top 10. Washburn won twice last week to clinch a share of its third MIAA title in the last four years. The Ichabods won on the road Tuesday in five sets at Nebraska-Kearney, ranked 11th now and seventh at the time, and then won in four at Lindenwood on Saturday.
Concordia St. Paul lost at Minnesota Duluth to fall out of the top spot in the nation. Tampa took over in first, UMD moved to second and Concordia moved to third. Central Missouri, which also beat UNK last week, is still fifth. Six of the top 11 teams in the nation come from the Central Region. Â
Cox wins second straight hitter of the week award
Rightside hitter
Marissa Cox earned her second straight MIAA hitter of the week award Monday after Washburn won twice last week to wrap up a share of its third conference title in the last four years. Cox averaged 4.78 kills a set and hit .359 as Washburn won at No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney and at Lindenwood. She had 18 kills and five blocks against UNK and 25 kills against LWU as she hit .478 in the match. She also averaged 0.67 blocks a set for 5.11 points a set. Cox has now won the award five times this year and Washburn has eight total volleyball athlete of the week awards.
Washburn looking for first MIAA postseason title
The Ichabods have played in eight MIAA postseason tournaments but have never won the event. Overall, they are 7-7 in the matches and 6-2 in opening round matches with the win Tuesday against Northwest Missouri.
They are 7-2 at home, 0-3 in neutral-site matches and 0-2 on the road. They have never met Nebraska-Kearney or Central Oklahoma in the tournament and they are 1-2 against Central Missouri. The tournament was played through 2007 and then resumed last year. Washburn won its opener last year against Fort Hays State and then lost in the second round to Central Missouri.
Potential battles ahead for Ichabods
The Ichabods will play Nebraska-Kearney for the third time this year after Washburn beat the Lopers in five sets twice this year. Washburn won at home on October 5 when the Lopers were ranked fifth in the nation and Washburn was 15th. On November 12 the Ichabods went to seventh-ranked UNK and lost the first two sets before coming back to win the next three and keep pace to win the MIAA championship.
Washburn trails in the all-time series with UNK, 8-26 and the wins this year broke a 13-match overall losing streak and gave Washburn its first win on the road against the Lopers.
If Washburn and Central Missouri both win their semifinal match, they will play for the second time this year. Central Missouri's 3-0 win on October 19 was Washburn's last loss this year and only in conference play. It gave the Jennies the tie-breaker in tournament seeding. Washburn beat UCM last year in Warrensburg in five sets then lost to the Jennies in the MIAA tournament semifinal, also in five sets. Central Missouri leads the all-time series, 13-49.
Washburn and Central Oklahoma met twice this year with the Ichabods sweeping both matches. Washburn has won five straight and leads the all-time series 6-2. They have never met in a postseason match.
Washburn looking for bid to 10th straight NCAA tourney
The winner of the MIAA, NSIC and GAC tournaments will earn automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. The seedings and five at-large bids will all be announced Monday, November 25 at 7:30 p.m. live on ncaa.com. The tournament will run December 5-7 at the site of the top seed in the region.
