FIRST SERVE …
>> After waiting 637 days, volleyball is officially back in action! No. 8-ranked Washburn is set to open the 2021 season at home first taking on Cameron Thursday evening before playing four matches at the Washburn Invitational, presented by Hotel Topeka at City Center, Friday and Saturday.
>> On Friday, the Ichabods will face Colorado-Colorado Springs (10 a.m.) and No. 19 Harding (6:30 p.m.) before wrapping up the tournament on Saturday against NSIC schools Minot State (11 a.m.) and No. 15 Northern State (4 p.m.).
>> Washburn went 27-4 (18-2 MIAA) in 2019 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the 15th time in program history.
WASHBURN INVITATIONAL …
>> Fan are welcome to attend and can purchase tickets online before home matches at wutickets.com. For the Washburn Invitational, a day pass is $10 and a two-day tournament pass is $15.
>> Those in attendance will also be required to wear masks while indoors on Washburn's campus and are encouraged to socially distance in the stands.
>> For the sixth-straight season, the Ichabods will open at home at the Washburn Invitational.
>> This will mark the 13th year overall Washburn has hosted the tournament.
>> The tournament will feature representatives from six conferences/associations: Great American Conference (GAC), Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), Lone Star Conference (LSC), Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
>> When playing in the WU Invitational, Washburn holds an impressive record of 47-1, losing only to Arkansas Tech in 2017.
>> The team has also won 142 out of the 163 sets they've played in the home tournament.
QUICK HITS …
>> Washburn is 36-15 all-time in season openers and 24-6 since joining the NCAA and MIAA in 1989.
>> The Ichabods checked in at No. 8 in the 2021 AVCA Preseason Poll after finishing the 2019 season ranked fifth overall.
>> Washburn has started the season ranked in the AVCA top-25 poll 16 times in Chris Herron's 19 official seasons as head coach.
>> Additionally, the Ichabods were tabbed second in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll. Washburn finished second in the MIAA standings in 2019.
>> The Ichabods will face two top-20 ranked teams in the first week, taking on No. 15 Northern State and No. 19 Harding.
>> Washburn faced a tough schedule in 2019 and went 4-4 against opponents ranked in the top-25. Six of those opponents were ranked in the top-10.
2021 SQUAD …
>> There are 13 Ichabods returning from the 2019 squad and they lost just two letterwinners from that team.
>> Ten seniors will take the court for their final season and are joined by two juniors, two sophomores, and one redshirts freshman.
>> Washburn added four freshmen in 2020 and four more for this fall.
>> Two transfer student-athletes also join the team in Jaycee Burghart (Cloud County CC) and Payton Nutter (Concordia-St. Paul).
ALL-MIAA RETURNERS …
>> The Ichabods return six of their seven 2019 all-MIAA award winners, including all four first-team selections.
>> Genna Berg turned in a career season in 2019, earning AVCA All-American second team honors and was named the 2019 MIAA Co-Player of the Year. She started all 31 matches and played in all 107 sets while leading the team in kills (411) and points (484) while also recording the team's second-most digs (355) and service aces (37).
>> Allison Maxwell was named to the all-league first-team for the second-consecutive season as she finished second on the team in kills (294) and total blocks (94) and led the Ichabods in hitting percentage (.301), which was the seventh-highest in the conference.
>> In the back row, Faith Rottinghaus earned her second first-team selection after she led the team in digs (594) and was third in the conference averaging 5.55 digs/set. She also had a .983 reception percentage, making just seven errors in 421 total attempts.
>> Setter Allison Sadler rounds out the Ichabods' first-team selections as she led the MIAA in assists per set and finished 19th in Division II with an 11.07 average. She also finished third in digs on the team.
>> Kelsey Gordon earned all-MIAA honors for the first time on the second team. She finished fifth in the MIAA in total blocks and blocks per set (96, 0.92) as well as 10th in the conference in hitting percentage (.292). Gordon was also the team leader in blocks, making 96 total with 13 solo stops.
>> Taylor Antonowich received honorable mention accolades and had a team-high 39 service aces and led the MIAA in aces per set.
LAST TIME OUT …
>> The Ichabods played a shortened conference-only schedule in the spring to get in some competition after the 2020 fall slate was canceled.
>> Washburn compiled a record of 14-5 with 11 of those victories coming by way of 3-0 sweeps.
>> The Ichabods hosted the 2021 MIAA Spring Volleyball Tournament in Lee Arena and faced Northwest Missouri in the quarterfinal match on April 16.
>> The Bearcats took the opening set 25-20 while the Ichabods rallied and took sets two and three, 26-24 and 28-26.
>> Northwest Missouri held on and narrowly won the remaining two sets, 25-22 and 15-12, to take the 3-2 victory.
BY THE NUMBERS …
>> 1,185 : Assists dished out by Sadler in 2019 en route to reaching 2,000 career assists.
>> 637 : Days since the Ichabods played an official match after the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
>> 663 : Days since playing an official home match in Lee Arena.
>> 594 : Digs by Faith Rottinghaus in 2019.
>> 411 : Kills by Genna Berg in 2019.
>> 20 : Three-set victories Washburn won in 2019.
>> 19 : Ichabods named to the MIAA Academic Honor Roll for the 2020-21 school year.
>> 18 : Consecutive winning seasons for Washburn.
>> 7 : Times an Ichabod was recognized as the MIAA Volleyball Athlete of the Week in 2019.
>> 2 : CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team awards earned by Faith Rottinghaus in the past two years.
MILESTONE TRACKER …
>> Rottinghaus is 157 digs away from 2,000 in her career. Washburn's all-time record for digs is 2,464 which was set by Erica Cowhick (2004-07).
>> Maxwell needs 107 more kills to reach 1,000 and become the 23rd Washburn player to achieve the milestone.
>> Maxwell is nearing another record as she needs 81 more blocks to be one of five players in Washburn's history to record 1,000 kills and 400 total blocks.
>> In 111 more digs, Berg will enter Washburn's history books as the 10th player to have 1,000 career kills and digs.
>> Gordon is 51 kills away from 500 in her career.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION ...
Cameron Aggies
>> The last time these two programs faced each other, the Washburn volleyball team was still called the Lady Blues. Washburn leads the series, 4-1, and won the last meeting on August 27, 2004 in a neutral site match.
>> The Aggies went 6-23 (2-16 LSC) in 2019 and held a 2-10 record in their shortened conference-only 2021 spring schedule.
>> Cameron was picked 17th in the LSC preseason poll.
>> Although the team lost its top-five offensive leaders from 2019, Caitlyn Henderson returns after hitting .269 with 92 kills.
>> Desiree Marmolejo played in all 29 matches and was second on the team in assists with 445 (4.24/set).
>> Brandon Stephenson was named the head coach in July of 2019 and will begin his third season with the program.
Colorado-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions
>> Washburn has won all seven matches against UCCS and has dropped just three sets over that time. The Ichabods last played the Mountain Lions on August 25, 2018 in Topeka where Washburn won 3-1.
>> The Mountain Lions closed out the 2019 campaign in the first round of the conference tournament with a record of 10-17 (8-10 RMAC).
>> UCCS was voted eighth in the 2021 RMAC Preseason Poll.
>> Redshirt junior Lauryn Shockley is the top-kills returner, as she tallied 236 (2.41/set). She also added 1.3 digs/set and had 39 total blocks.
>> Chrissy Elder starts her ninth season with the Mountain Lions and holds a mark of 101-98.
Harding Bison
>> Washburn leads the all-time series, 9-3, and is 2-0 when playing Harding in Lee Arena.
>> In the shortened 2021 spring season, Harding went 12-1 and was ranked seventh in the final AVCA poll.
>> The Bison were selected second in the GAC preseason poll and are ranked 19th in the AVCA national poll.
>> In 2019, Harding went 21-11 (10-6 GAC) and finished as the GAC Tournament runner-up.
>> All four 2019 all-conference award winners return this year for just their second official season of competition: Logan Smith (first team), Libby Hinton (second team), Kelli McKinnon and Sarah Morehead (honorable mentions).
>> Smith turned in an impressive freshman campaign where she averaged 3.47 kills/set and 3.65 digs/set.
>> Meredith Fear is entering her 10th season as the head coach and holds a record of 185-72 at Harding.
Minot State Beavers
>> This will be the first meeting between these two teams.
>> The Beavers went 3-26 (2-18 NSIC) in 2019.
>> This year's squad was picked 15th in the NSIC Preseason Poll and has a youthful look with 21 freshman, one sophomore, three seniors, and a graduate.
>> Senior Kayla Verity was named a player to watch by the NSIC.
>> Dana Cordova Jacobson has led MSU since 2017 and is 21-68 at the helm.
Northern State Wolves
>> These two teams have played each other only once back on Nov. 15, 2018 in the NCAA Central Region Quarterfinal match in which Washburn won in five sets.
>> The 2019 team went 25-6 (17-3 NSIC) and played in the NCAA Central Region semifinal against Nebraska-Kearney.
>> NSU was selected fourth in the NSIC Preseason Poll and is currently ranked 15th in the AVCA national poll.
>> All three of the Wolves' AVCA All-Region selections from 2019 have graduated, but the roster is still mostly upper classmen with three seniors and eight juniors.
>> Sally Gaul played in 29 matches with 21 starts and was third on the team in kills in '19 with 317 (3.02 kills/set).
>> Brent Aldridge enters his 11th season with the Wolves with a record of 188-77.
2019 & 2020 SEASON REWIND …
>> In 2019, Washburn completed its second-straight season ranked as a top-five team in the AVCA national final rankings as the Ichabods checked in at No. 5 in all of Division II.
>> The team finished the season 27-4 and 18-2 in MIAA matches with their only two losses of the regular season coming against Nebraska-Kearney.
>> Washburn started the season undefeated through nine matches while only suffering one set loss amid eight 3-0 sweep victories.
>> The Ichabods were awarded the No. 2 seed in the MIAA Tournament and swept their quarterfinal game against Pittsburg State before falling in five to Central Missouri in the semifinal.
>> Washburn earned its 15th trip to the NCAA Tournament and was tabbed as the six-seed in the Central Region and played against the three-seed and No. 3 nationally-ranked Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears in the quarterfinals.
>> CSP won sets one and three and WU claimed sets two and four to send it to the deciding fifth, which the Golden Bears won 15-8 ultimately ending the Ichabods' season.
>> Although the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MIAA teams agreed to a shortened conference-only schedule in the spring of 2021 to have the opportunity to compete.
>> Official statistics were not kept, but the competition level remained high and the Ichabods finished with a mark of 14-5 and recorded 11 sweep victories.
TAKE A LOOK AHEAD …
>> The Ichabods head west next week to play four matches at the Colorado-Colorado Springs Mountain Lion Invitational Sept. 10-11.
