MIAA Volleyball Notes: Week Two

Central Missouri
Junior setter Julia Bates extends her streak of at least 20 assists to 24 games, dating back to last season (Oct. 2). Over that time, Bates has collected over 40 assists seven times, including twice last week. Her career high was set in the first game of her streak, piling up 60 assists in a four set win over West Texas A&M.

Senior Allie Huffman moved into 6th on the Jennies' all-time attempts list, passing Elyse Mohme (2001-04). Huffman now has 3,631 attempts during her four-year career at Central Missouri, hitting for a .258 average over that time.

Middle hitter Paula Harris is inching closer to becoming UCM's all-time points leader, after picking up 43.5 last weekend. Harris has 1426.5 points in her career, just 78.5 behind Becky Haug (2002-05).

Emporia State
ESU has been ranked in the nation's top 25 for 54 straight weeks

The Hornets Courtney Haring was named the MIAA Hitter of the Week

Meg Schwartz has a 10 match streak of finishing double-figure digs

The Hornets are 42-24 against team from the Great Lakes Valley Conference

ESU faces #3 Tampa in Warrensburg, Mo. it will be their first meeting with the Spartans

Fort Hays State
The 3-1 start to the year is best by Fort Hays State since 2005, when they started 5-1

Camille Hubert and Sara Hewson were named to the All-Tournament Team at the Active Ankle Invite

Hewson's 6 service aces against Minot State were the most by a Tiger since Alissa Tonniges had 6 against Ouachita Baptist on August 25, 2007.

Missouri Southern
Southern VB Coach Trish Knight wins her first match as a Southern coach, with a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Newman in the final match of the 2011 MSSU Invitational.

Rachel Olinyk was named to the MSSU Invitational All-Tournament Team.

Missouri Western
Alex Behnke had 10 or more kills in all four matches

Open season 2-2 for second straight season

Senior outside hitter Tahler Johnston led team with 47 kills.

Griffon played six freshman and eight new players in the opening weekend

Northwest Missouri
Northwest got off to a good start at the always tough UNO Showcase featuring top teams from around the country. The Bearcats picked up wins against Northern State and Minnesota State-Moorhead before falling to Augustana and Winona State.

The Bearcats got great offensive performances from Alex Hanna and Brooke Bartosh. Hanna hit .246 with 47 kills while Bartosh added 48 kills while hitting at a .275 clip.

Laira Akin helped pace the Bearcat offense as the senior setter finished with 159 assists in four matches.

Akin was also solid on defense with 35 digs while Tori Beckman added 80 digs. Bartosh was also a solid presence in the middle adding 18 blocks to lead Northwest over the weekend.

Pittsburg State
Pitt State faces six opponents who were ranked in the AVCA Top 25 Preseason Coaches Poll, including No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul and No. 2 Central Missouri.

Freshman Morgan Voorhes had a great weekend for the Gorillas in her first collegiate outing. She led the Pitt State with 2.80 kills per set, while also contributing 2.47 digs per set and 0.60 blocks per set, defensively.

Southwest Baptist
SBU Volleyball opened up the 2011 Season going 3-1 at the West Texas Lady Buff Classic.

Truman
Truman went 3-1 in its opening weekend at the MSU Hampton Inn-vitational, defeating Nova-Southeastern (Fla.), Texas A&M-International and Incarnate Word (Texas).

Freshman libero Abby Moser was named to the all-tournament team and was also named MIAA Specialist of the Week after averaging 5.80 digs per set at the event with three matches of 20+ digs.

The Bulldogs went 3-0 in neutral-court matches this past weekend, running their record to 13-1 in neutral-site matches during the past two years.

Washburn
The fourth-ranked Lady Blues will head to Denver, Colo., for the Colorado Premier Challenge hosted by Regis and Metro State Friday and Saturday. Washburn (4-0) will play Colorado-Colorado Springs at 1 p.m. Central Time Friday and then play West Florida at 8 p.m. that night. Saturday's action will be determined by Friday's results.

Washburn moved up a spot to No. 4 in the AVCA national poll released Monday. The Lady Blues have now been in the top 10 in the AVCA national poll 28 straight weeks. Washburn has been in the top 10 in 53 of the last 57 AVCA polls. They have been ranked in the poll every week since the start of the 2004 season and there have only been 10 weeks that they weren't ranked since Chris Herron began in 2002, including his first seven weeks.

Along with Washburn, No. 1 and defending NCAA champions Concordia St. Paul, No. 6 Southwest Minnesota State, No. 9 Metro State and No. 16 Seattle Pacific are in the Premier Challenge.

With 990 career kills, senior middle hitter Mollie Lacy will enter the Premier Challenge just 10 kills shy of becoming the 14th member of Washburn's 1,000 kill club. With 238 total blocks, she would then need 62 to join the 1,000 kills/300 blocks club.

Washburn is the only MIAA team to survive the opening weekend undefeated. Five teams suffered just one loss.