TOPEKA, Kan. -- No. 13 Washburn goes east for an all-Missouri road trip facing the Lions at 6 p.m. on Friday night and the Jennies at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
SETTING THE SCHEDULE …
>> The No. 13 ranked Washburn volleyball team travels east for conference play this week against a pair of Missouri schools, Missouri Southern and Central Missouri.
>> The Ichabods will play their first conference road game of the season on Friday, Sep. 22 at 6 p.m. against the Lions and will head for Warrensburg the next day to take on the Jennies at 2 p.m.
>> Washburn wrapped up a six match home stand last weekend with sweeps over No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney and Fort Hays State to open up the first weekend of MIAA competition. The road trip for the Ichabods will only last one weekend as they return home the following week for two more matches.
QUICK HITS …
>> Washburn is now 8-1 on the year and 2-0 in the MIAA
>> The Ichabods are tied with Central Missouri and Central Oklahoma for first in the conference as the only undefeated teams remaining
>> Washburn moved up in the AVCA Coaches Poll for a second consecutive week, jumping up two spots to No. 13 after being ranked No. 15 last week.
>> The Ichabods were picked to finish fourth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll just behind Central Oklahoma and one spot ahead of Central Missouri.
>> Washburn finished fifth in the 2022 MIAA regular season standings.
>> The Ichabods will make one more trip to Missouri in the regular season on Oct. 27-28
>> Washburn is looking for its first true road win of the season as they currently sit at 0-1 on the year
THE WEEK THAT WAS
>> Washburn reeled off back-to-back sweeps of No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney and Fort Hays State. The Ichabods defeated the Loeprs 25-22, 25-22 and 25-15 while winning 25-17, 25-12 and 25-20 sets over the Tigers on Saturday.
>> The Ichabods are now 3-0 against ranked opponents after defeating Nebraska-Kearney. All three victories have come in sweeps.
>> Washburn is now 6-0 in Lee Arena this season.
>> The Ichabods have swept three straight opponents and have won 3-0 six times on the year already.
>> Washburn has won its last 12 sets going back to winning the final three against Oklahoma Baptist.
>> Rachel Schwensen had a historic offensive day against the Lopers knocking down 17 kills on just 27 attempts with one error good for her to hit .539. She also added three blocks.
>> The performance was the 15th best hitting percentage recorded by a player with at least 20 attacks in program history. Of the 14 higher only two tallied more than 17 kills in the match.
>> Schwensen was named the MIAA Offensive Player of the Week
>> The Ichabods hit over .300 as a team in both matches (.307 and .303 respectively)
>> Jalyn Stevenson notched a double-double against the Lopers with 10 kills on .292 hitting and 12 digs, she had nine and nine against Fort Hays State, leading in kills.
>> Taylor Rottinghaus grabbed 23 digs against the Lopers in just three sets while also adding five assists, the Ichabods out-dug the Lopers 66 to 37 in the match
STACKING UP THE STATS
>> The Ichabods are knocking down 14.2 kills per set, picking up 13.1 assists, making 16.9 digs and stuffing 2.1 attacks.
>> Opponents are netting 10.4 kills per set, 9.5 assists, 14.2 digs and 2.8 blocks.
>> Washburn is hitting .241 as a team through nine matches while opponents are hitting .149
>> The Ichabods are 12th nationally out of 278 ranked teams with an average of 13.06 assists per set, it's the third highest mark in the conference
>> In kills per set Washburn is 13th in the nation and third in the MIAA knocking down 14.16 per set, they moved up to 36th in the country with a hitting percentage of .241
>> The Ichabod defense is up to 49th overall in digs per set at 16.87, fourth most among conference schools
>> Washburn is 23th in the nation in aces per set at 2.26, that number is highest in the MIAA
>> When the Ichabods outhit their opponents they are 8-0
>> When Washburn collects more digs than opponents they are 8-0
>> The Ichabods are 8-0 when they have more assists than oppoennts.
>> Corinna McMullen is 59th in the nation in aces per set at .55. It is second among all MIAA players. Rylee Unruh is 113th out of 299 qualified players and fifth in the conference.
>> Jalyn Stevenson is fifth in the MIAA in kills per set at 3.16 and sixth in points per set wiht 3.68.
>> Taylor Rottinghaus has climbed to fifth among conference players at 4.23 digs per set.
TEAM LEADERS
>> Jalyn Stevenson leads Washburn with 98 kills on the year (3.16 per set) while hitting .213. She is second on the team with 90 digs and has made 195 receptions with only four errors.
>> Rachel Schwensen is up to 82 kills (2.65 per set) and is hitting .292 with only 19 errors on 216 attempts. She is also tied for second on the team with 23 total blocks and leads with five solos.
>> Rylee Unruh is third on the team with 72 kills (2.32 per set) and has done a little bit of everything, adding 15 aces, 77 digs and has been apart of 11 blocks.
>> Corinna McMullen leads the Ichabods with 197 assists (6.35 per set) and is third with 89 digs (2.87 per set). She leads the Ichabods with 17 aces on the year and only five service errors.
>> Austin Broadie has knocked down 65 kills (2.10 per set) while carrying a hitting percentage of .267. She has helped out on 23 total blocks with four solo.
>> Taylor Rottinghaus leads Washburn with 110 digs (4.23 per set) while adding 23 assists and holding a .978 reception percentage on 89 receptions.
>> Bella Limback has 49 kills on the year on only 98 attempts (1.58 per set) while hitting a team-high .418. She has the most blocks of any Washburn player with 27 total (.87 per set) and has recorded 25 digs.
>> Sydney Conner has chipped in 147 assists (4.74 per set) and 53 digs (1.71 per set) and has nine aces on 114 attempts with only four erros.
>> Taryn Pridgett has made 42 kills (1.75 per set) while hitting .227. She has combined to make 14 blocks.
>> Iyannah Jackson has chipped in 12 kills across 10 sets while also assisting with seven blocks.
>> Maddie Steiner has made 24 digs on the year (1.26 per set) with 11 assists.
BY THE NUMBERS …
>> 2 : NCAA Central Region championships won by Washburn in the past four official seasons.
>> 2 : The number of spots Washburn moved up in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll
>> 4 : upperclassmen on this year's team ... the fewest since the 2014 roster also featuring four
>> 6 : Number of sweeps for the Ichabods this season
>> 10 : student-athletes who were on the roster last year who are not on the 2022 roster
>> 20 : consecutive winning seasons for Washburn.
>> 118 : consecutive victories when winning the first two sets of a match
>> 594 : wins that Herron has at Washburn.
MILESTONE TRACKER …
>> Chris Herron is six wins away from 600 in his career at Washburn
>> Austin Broadie is 14 kills away from 300 in her career
>> Jalyn Stevenson needs three more kills and nine more digs for 750 in her career in both categories
>> Bella Limback only needs seven more blocks for 50 in her career
>> Rachel Schwensen is 73 kills away from 1,000 in her collegiate career
sCOUTING THE OPPOSITION ...
Missouri Southern Lions
>> Missouri Southern is 8-3 overall on the year with a 1-1 record in MIAA play. They are 3-1 in road matches.
>> Last season the Lions went 13-17 and 8-12 in the MIAA, losing in the first round of the conference tournament.
>> Katie Mader is in her sixth year at the helm of the Lions program, she has a career record of 47-101 with Missouri Southern
>> Assistant coach Joshua Moore rounds out the coaching staff
>> As a team the Lions carry averages of 13.0 kills per set while hitting .183, 12.2 assists, 19.9 digs and 1.9 blocks.
>> Fernanda Canedo has 136 kills for Missouri Southern (3.49 per set) and is hitting .174 on the year. She has also made 114 digs (2.92 per set), combined for 18 blocks and has six aces.
>> Amelia Neels has 83 kills for the Lions (2.18 per set) with a hitting percentage of .256. She leads the team with 31 total blocks.
>> Tori Hamilton leads Missouri Southern scooping 163 digs (4.66 per set) she also has 10 aces.
>> Hannah Allick paces the Lions with 211 assists (6.21 per set).
>> Washburn is 42-28 all-time against Missouri Southern going back to 1976. Last season the Lions won both matchups against the Ichabods, breaking a 33 match winning streak.
Central Missouri Jennies
>> The Jennies are 5-5 on the year after losing a Tuesday non-conference matchup against No. 25 Rockhurst. UCM is 2-0 in MIAA play and 2-0 in road matches.
>> In 2022 Central Missouri went 19-11 overall and 14-6 in the MIAA, losing in the first round of the conference tournament
>> The Jennies are led by Caitlin Peterson in her second season at UCM where she was an All-American as a player.
>> Christi Lutman, Cory Allensworth and Taylor Linebach round out the coaching staff
>> The Jennies are recieving votes in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll
>> As a team UCM averages 12.8 kills per set while hitting .198, 11.6 assists, 2.3 blocks and 15.7 digs.
>> Kersti Nix has 156 kills (3.63 per set) to top the Jennies ranks while hitting ..234. She has also helped out on 19 combined blocks and made 76 digs (1.77 per set).
>> Grace Southern has 57 blocks (1.33 per set) more than double the next most on the team. She is also second in kills with 114 (2.65 per set) while hitting .325.
>> Olivia Olson has 422 assists for Central Missouri (9.81 per set) along with seven aces, 28 blocks and 120 digs (2.79 per set).
>> Grace Winkelmann has 143 digs to pace the Jennies (3.33 per set), she also has 20 assists and eight aces.
>> Washburn is 23-49 all-time against the Jennies going back to 1978 although they have won the last three matchups including both matches last year.
TAKE A LOOK AHEAD …
>> Washburn returns home to face the rest of Missouri, hosting Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri on Sep. 29-30
>> Senior night for the Ichabods is No. 4 against Pittsburg State at 2 p.m.
>> Washburn will finish the regular season on Nov. 11 at Newman
>> The MIAA Championship Tournament begins on Thursday Nov. 16.
