WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Oct. 26, 2016) - No. 15 Jennies Volleyball gets back into the swing of things this weekend, hitting the road for a pair of MIAA matches against No. 9 Central Oklahoma and Pittsburg State.
When: Friday-Saturday, Oct. 28-29
Where: Edmond, Okla. - Hamilton Field House
Pittsburg, Kan. - John Lance Arena
Opponents: No. 9 Central Oklahoma - Friday, Oct. 28 - 6:30 p.m.
Pittsburg State - Saturday, Oct. 29, 3 p.m.
How to Watch: Matches this weekend will be webcast online through Central Missouri's Stretch Internet portal at UCMathletics.com/gamecentral. It is a pay-per-view broadcast. Live stats can be found at UCMathletics.com.
First Serve
• The Jennies held onto No. 15 in the AVCA poll this week. There season-high is at six, which they've reached twice and a low of 16, where they ranked two weeks ago.
• Central Oklahoma moved up two spots to No. 9 this week in the AVCA poll. They were ranked 10th when the teams first met five weeks ago. At 23-2, the Jennies and Nebraska-Kearney are the only two teams to have defeated UCO this season.
• Central Missouri will take on a 5-18 PSU Saturday afternoon. Three of the Gorillas five wins this season have come against MIAA opponents, including Emporia State last weekend.
Story Lines
• For the second straight week, the Jennies will get in a pair of rematches. Central Oklahoma and Pittsburg State came to Warrensburg Sept. 23 and 24.
• Central Missouri holds a 13-2 series edge over the Bronchos. Their last win came in the MIAA opener last season. UCM has won three straight over the Bronchos.
• The Jennies and Gorillas have met 64 previous times with the Jennies getting the better of PSU in 58 of them. Pittsburg State's last win over Central Missouri was Coach Piontek's first ever MIAA match, Sept. 11, 2009.
•
Kylie Hohlen and
Cheyanne Lyons each had 12 kills and UCM held UCO to a .061 hitting percentage in their first match this season, a 3-0 win on Sept. 23
• The Jennies also swept the Gorillas 3-0 the next day, Sept. 24. Lyons led UCM with 11 kills and the Jennies connected for a .337 attack percentage, their highest against any MIAA
opponent this season.
• Last season, UCM went 15-3 in conference. They have never lost more than five conference matches in a single season.
• The Jennies went 30-5 in 2015, and won their 14th MIAA Tournament Championship.
Quick Hits
UCM in the Polls
Central Missouri remained at pat No. 15 in this week's AVCA rankings. Last week they moved up one spot after being at No. 16 two weeks ago, the the lowest the Jennies have been ranked all season long. Four weeks ago, UCM was ranked No. 6, tied for the highest they've been ranked the last two seasons. The Jens have been ranked in every AVCA poll since its inception in 1986, a span of 391 polls.
Before the season started, Central Missouri was picked to finish second in the MIAA, tying with Central Oklahoma with 106 points in the preseason coaches poll. Washburn received the most points to lead the preseason poll.
Leader Boards (as of 10/25/2016)
On the offensive end of the floor, the Jennies are third in the MIAA in both hitting percentage and kills.
Cheyanne Lyons is the team leader and is sixth in the league at 3.31 kills per set. The Jens have two in the MIAA top-10 in hitting percentage with
Kourtney Thompson fourth at .349 and
Kasey Hohlen fifth at .348. In conference only games,
Maddie Jones is third hitting .356 and
Maddie Jones sixth at .312.
Also in conference only games, the Jennies have three in the MIAA top-10 in service aces.
Tyler Downs tops the conference at 0.42 aces per set.
Carly Offerdahl is fifth at 0.32 and
Katie Carlson ninth at 0.24. Downs is sixth in MIAA-only games with 9.79 assists per set and
Kylie Hohlen ninth in digs with 4.08.
At the national level, the Jennies rank 16th in kills per set and 29th in both hitting percentage and assists per set. Thompson is a big help to those last two, she's 38th in hitting percentage and 39th in assists per set.
Career Milestones
Senior setter
Kourtney Thompson had missed six games, but came back last weekend to put up 73 assists. With that, she has cracked 3,000 assists in her career and stands at 3,013 total.
Nearing 1,000 career kills is senior
Maddie Jones. She stands at 891, needing just 109 more. Jones is also closing in on 250 career blocks. She is just nine blocks away from the milestone.
Fellow senior
Mackenzie Harding went over 100 kills for the season last weekend at 200 for her career. Harding has 105 kills this season and 206 throughout her four years at Central Missouri. She also needs just four more blocks to reach 100 for her career.
Like Harding, junior
Molly Lawrence went over 200 career kills last weekend and stands at 201. She has put up big numbers for the Jennies landing a career-high 182 kills this season.
Junior
Kasey Hohlen is closing in on 100 career blocks as well. She stands at 98 in just under two seasons.
Jennies on the Road
In true road games this season, the Jennies are 4-3, but have won their last two road matchups. They are 2-3 on the road in MIAA matches.
Magic Number
Throughout Coach Piontek's tenure at the helm of UCM Volleyball, there has been one surefire way to determine if the Jennies won - checking out the hitting percentage. When UCM hits .300 or better for the match, the Jennies are a perfect 97-0 under Piontek. That includes going 9-0 this season. Things normally work out even if they fall a little short. They are 14-0 this season and 189-10 when hitting at least .200 for a match.
Three and Flee
The Jennies this season have liked to finish off games in short fashion with 17 of their 23 matches going the minimum three sets. The Jens have won 13 of those and are 3-3 when going beyond. When the match reaches set five however, the Jennies are just 1-2.
In the Jennies 3-0 sweep of Fort Hays State, UCM landed 54 total kills, the most by one team in a three-set match in the MIAA this season.
Against Ranked Opponents
The Jennies match against Central Oklahoma will be their ninth this season against an AVCA ranked opponents. The Jennies thus far are 3-5 in such games this season, with one of those wins coming against the Bronchos. At the helm of the Jennies, Coach Piontek is 55-35 against ranked opponents. With two more matches against ranked opponents following this week, the Jennies will play a total of 11 of their 31 regular season matches against ranked opponents.
Scouting the Opposition
No. 9 Central Oklahoma
• The Bronchos have only lost two matches on the season, one in Warrensburg back in September. UCO is 23-2 and 9-2 in the MIAA which puts them in third place. UCO's only other loss was to Nebraska-Kearney on the road. The Bronchos are 12-0 at home this season.
• Central Oklahoma is in the NCAA top 10 in both hitting percentage (.262%) and opponent hitting percentage (.117%). The duo of Allison Barr (.330) and Jordan Spence (.309) have been largely responsible for that. They're seventh and 10th in the MIAA.
• Another reason the UCO hitting percentage is so high is because of setter Katy Davis. She is eighth in the NCAA and second in the MIAA averaging 11.75 assists per set. She's also picked up 169 digs and eight service aces.
• On the outside, reigning MIAA Hitter of the Week Taylor Bevis is one of two players in the MIAA averaging more than four kills per set. She's second at 4.03 and averaged six kills per set last weekend. Ijeoma Njenje is nine kills short of 200 for the season and is landing 2.65 kills per set.
• Defensively, the Bronchos lead the MIAA in digs per set with 17.79. Dominique Lipari is third in the conference collecting 4.72 digs per set herself. Taylor Bevis is also averaging more than three digs per set at 3.18 and Bonnie Vernon registers 2.97.
• Central Oklahoma successfully puts back more than two blocks per set at 2.09. Jordan Spence cracks the top-10 in blocks per set at No. 10 with 0.92. Allison Barr is close behind at 0.87.
• UCO has the top server in the MIAA when it comes to aces per set. Mehana Fonseca tops the conference with 0.40 aces per set and leads UCO with 26. Spence has 18 aces this season while Lipari has 17 and Vernon 16.
Pittsburg State
• Pittsburg State is under the direction of first year Head Coach Jen Gomez. After going just 2-27 last season, the Gorillas have more than doubled their win total and stand at 5-18.
• PSU is 3-3 in their last six matches and stopped a three match losing streak with a 3-2 win over Emporia State. They also took No. 14 Washburn to five sets after leading two sets to one.
• The Gorillas are being out-done by their opponents in every facet of the game, but are near even in total digs.
• Maggie Highberger has taken over as the team's leader in kills with 218. She is one of three Gorillas with more than two kills per set at 2.63. Peyton Walker is at 2.31 kills per set and Zoey Qi is at an even 2.00. Taylor Unke leads PSU with a .198 attack percentage while Qi is second at .183. Highberger is connected at a .163 clip.
• Pittsburg State is over a 1:2 ratio of service aces per error. As a team PSU has landed 74 aces while committing 160 service errors. Taylor Wright and Carolina VanBuskirk lead Pittsburg State with 13 aces.
• VanBuskirk is the sister of Jennies freshman
Hannah VanBuskirk. The PSU version is the team's primary setter with 617 assists and 7.62 assists per set. She's stepped up her game in MIAA play, averaging 9.10 assists per set, ninth in the conference.
• Ashlen Schwartz has cracked the MIAA top-10 in digs per set with 3.81. She leads the Gorillas with 324 total digs and also has a team-best 375 service receptions.
• Taylor Unke has been a strong help for the Gorillas when it comes to blocks. She's put back a team-best 57 blocks including 13 of the solo variety. Lauren Regier is second on the team with 39 blocks.
