THE SETUP
No. 11 Washburn volleyball returns to Lee Arena on Friday and Saturday as it closes out the 2018 regular season by hosting No. 17 Central Oklahoma and Pittsburg State. The Ichabods open with UCO at 7 pm on Friday before facing PSU Saturday at 2 pm. Tied atop the MIAA standing, the Ichabdos look for a strong performance to end the year in hopes of securing a regular-season title. Live stats and video for each match are available either by visiting wusports.com/live or the team's schedule on wusports.com.

THEY GOT HISTORY
• Friday's match with UCO will the second of the season and 20th all-time meeting with Washburn leading the series, 11-8.
• The Ichabods are 7-1 when hosting UCO with the lone loss coming last season (10/7/2017).
• WU downed the UCO earlier this season with a 3-1 result in Edmond.
• Saturday's match with Pitt State will be the 87th meeting all-time.
• Washburn leads the series by a lopsided 65-21 margin and carries a 19-match win streak over the Gorillas.
• The Ichabods beat PSU, 3-1, earlier this season in Pittsburg.

WIN WIN WIN
Washburn's 22-0 run to open the 2018 campaign was the best start in program history surpassing a 15-0 start in 2009 ... the streak tied the 2011 mark for second-longest in program-history ... the Ichabods .929 win percentage to begin the week was fourth-best in Div. II, while their 26 wins tied for third-most with Spring Hill (Ala.) and Tarleton State.

SET DOMINATION
Washburn has been dominate this season winning 16 of 28 matches in 3-0 fashion ... additionally, the Ichabods have only dropped 17 of 95 sets they've played ... entering the 2018 campaign, WU had won 308 matches in straight sets ... the single-season record for most three-set victories is 24 and was set in 2008. 

AGAINST RANKED FOES
• Under head coach Chris Herron, Washburn is 63-62 all-time when facing teams mentioned among the AVCA Top 25.
• Friday's  meeting with UCO will be the sixth match against an AVCA ranked opponent in 2018.
• Since 2002, Washburn is 38-16 when hosting a ranked opponent at Lee Arena. 

TOUGH DEFENSE
• The Washburn defense is among the NCAA Division II Top 25 in opponent hitting percent (10th/0.116), digs per set (9th/19.93), total digs (23rd/1,893), while listed 28th in blocks per set (2.23) and 38th in blocks (211.5).
• In 24 of 28 matches, WU opponents have hit sub-.200 for a match, with 13 below the .100 mark including a season-low -.029 against Southeastern Oklahoma (8/25).
• Opponents have combined for 549 attack errors with the WU front line contributing with 211.5 blocks (third-most in the MIAA).
• Washburn tops the MIAA team leaderboard in digs per set while listed second in opponent hitting percentage and blocks per set.

ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
• Among the national leaderboard, the Ichabod attack is among the Division II's top 20 in kills per set (14th/14.35) and assists per set (18th/13.31) while ranking 30th in kills (1363) and 31st  in hitting (0.240). 
• Washburn has hit .250 or better in a match 14 times this season and have surpassed .300 hitting on four occasions including a season-best, .413 versus Southern Arkansas (8/31).
• WU had a season-high 67 kill vs Missouri Western (10/12) and a season-low of 37 vs Southern Nazarene (9/1).
• In the MIAA team leaderboard, WU tops the kills per set category while listed second in hitting and attacks per set (39.57).

GET YO MAK ON
• Makayla Maxwell's 632 kills is 32nd-overall on the all-time Washburn kills list ... she posted a career-best 272 kills in 2017 and has averaged roughly 157 kills in her last three seasons.
• Maxwell's 352 career blocks is 14th on the career list ... she averaged 123 blocks in her last two seasons and if she continues the trend, would finished her career among the top 10 all-time - she notched 117 last season.
• Maxwell began the weekend ninth among MIAA leaders in blocks per set (0.95), 14th in blocks (81) and seventh in hitting (.322).

COUNT ON THE HAUS
• Faith Rottinghaus posted a career-best 38 digs at UNK (10/20) ... she began the week ranked 22nd on Washburn's career digs (1086) list after beginning the year ranked 44th.
• Nationally, Rottinghaus is among the Div. II's Top 50 in digs per set (42th/5.34) and digs (46th/507), marks that have her listed fourth and fifth in the MIAA respectively.
• The sophomore libero is 152nd on the Division II active career list for digs, while her career 5.03 digs per set is 24th-best among  division leaders.

COURT SIDE ASSISTANCE
• Shayla Conner continues to the climb the charts, now sitting at 11th on the career assist rankings (1,565) is now 44 from shy of the 10th spot on the career list.
• Conner has reached the 40-assists plateau eight times this season including a career-best 52 against UNK (9/15).
• Conner has a team-best 20 double-doubles for the year ... Friday versus Lindenwood ended a double-double streak of 13 matches.
• Nationally, Conner's 905 assists and 9.63 assists per set, place her among the Top 100 and fifth and sixth, respectively, in the MIAA ... her 335 digs heading into the weekend is 16th-best among the MIAA leaders.

ALLI TO THE MAX
• Registered a career-best 24 kills on Oct. 12 against MWSU ... has 17 matches with double-figure kills ... had a seven-match streak (9/14-29) with 10+ kills.
• The sophomore has registered five or more blocks seven times this season with a season and career-best 9.0 on Sept. 18.
• Maxwell is among the top 45 in Washburn's record book for career blocks (34th/184), kills (42nd/499) and points (t-44th/607).
• Maxwell began the week among the MIAA Top 10 in kills (10th/281), kills per set (8th/3.09), hitting (10th/.307), blocks (8th/86) and blocks per set (10th/0.95).

NOTHING BUT A G-THING 
• Genna Berg has 34 kills and 37 digs over the last four matches.
• Among MIAA leaders, Berg began the week 16th in kills (258) and 14th in points per set (3.28), while averaging 8.93 attacks, ninth-best in the MIAA.

TO THE 9
• Washburn's No. 9, Erica Montgomery, has been thriving of late posting double-figure kills in five of the last six outings ... during that six match stretch, she has tallied 80 kills including a season-best 20 against Emporia State (10/16).
• Among conference leaders, Montgomery is ninth in kills (285) and 11th in kills per set (3.03) while hitting .211 on the year. 

OTHER NOTABLES
• Taylor Antonowich began the week aces in four of the last five matches, tallying two or more three times ... during that stretch the freshman has tallied nine points from the service line,
• Antonowich has just one reception error in 80 attempts (.988) during the last five matches. 
• Katie Heeter has been solid on the back line with 211 digs on the year ... had a career-best 19 earlier this season against UNK (11/15) ... had 19 during last week's slate.

MIAA LOG-JAM
The top five teams in the MIAA standings are separated by no more than two games. Washburn and Nebraska-Kearney share control of first at 14-2, with Central Oklahoma and Northwest Missouri deadlocked at 13-3 for third. Central Missouri began the final week of the season fifth at 12-4. Meanwhile four teams are jocking for the final three spots for the MIAA Tournament. Pittsburg State started the weekend sixth at 7-9, followed by Lindenwood, Missouri Western and Emporia State each beginning the week at 6-10. 

HOME SWEET HOME
The 2018 campaign marks the 29th season volleyball has called Lee Arena home ... the Ichabods are 9-2 when playing at home this season ... since 1990, Washburn has enjoyed a fair amount of success at home as it began the year with a 286-105 all-time record ... during its time at Lee Arena, WU has gone perfect four times, the last being 2016 when it went 15-0 ... in 2007, WU recorded the most wins (17) at Lee Arena in program-history ... that season Washburn also hosted the NCAA Division II National Championship despite being the No. 4-seed ... over the last 15 seasons, the Ichabods have continuously been ranked among NCAA Division II's top 15 in attendance.

500-WIN CLUB
After helping Washburn become just the 10th NCAA Division II program to 1,000 victories last season, head coach Chris Herron began the 2018 campaign 29 wins shy of 500 since taking over at Washburn in 2002. Herron, who's already the winningest coach in program-history, also started the year six wins shy of 550 for his overall career.

50TH SEASON
The 2018-19 academic year marks the 50th season of women's athletics at Washburn University, which began with volleyball, basketball, softball, field hockey and  gymnastics. Although, field hockey and gymnastics are no longer available, the offerings for female student-athletes have grown to eight sports with the addition of soccer, tennis, and most cross country and track and field.

FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES
Friday's match with Central Oklahoma, Washburn volleyball will help to raise donations for the fight against juvenile diabetes. Fans who attend who will be able to purchase limited edition t-shirt and make donations in other capacities. All proceeds raised from Friday's match will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Also referred to as Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), is an autoimmune disease that occurs when a person's pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone that controls blood-sugar levels. T1D develops when the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells are mistakenly destroyed by the body's immune system. T1D affects children and adults, though people can be diagnosed at any age. With a typically quick onset, T1D must be managed with the use of insulin—either via injection or insulin pump. For more information regarding T1D, including way to join the fight against, visit jdrf.org.