WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Sept. 21, 2016) - The No. 10 Central Missouri Jennies Volleyball opens up MIAA play this weekend against seventh-ranked Central Oklahoma and Pittsburg State.
When: Friday-Saturday, Sept. 23-24
Where: Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building
Opponents: No. 7 Central Oklahoma - Fri., Sept. 23, 6 p.m.
                   Pittsburg State - Sat., Sept. 24, 7 p.m.
How to Watch: Live stats for matches this weekend will be available through www.ucmathletics.com. Video for both weekend matches is available through Central Missouri's Stretch Internet portal at portal.stretchinternet.com/ucmo
First Serve
• The Jennies are ranked 10th in the AVCA this week. They moved up one spot from No. 11 last week and have reached a high of No. 6 this season.
• Central Missouri went 4-0 last weekend at the Peggy Martin Crossover Challenge. The Jennies defeated three schools out of the in-region Great American Conference as well as Newman.
• Central Oklahoma is one of two MIAA ranked ahead of Central Missouri. They come to Warrensburg with a 13-0 record and and ranked seventh by the AVCA.
• Pittsburg State is on the other end of the MIAA with a 2-10 record, but have won two of their last four matches.
Story Lines
• This weekend marks the start of MIAA play for the Jennies. They went 10-2 during nonconference play (with one nonconference game remaining in November). Last season, UCM went 15-3 in conference. They have never lost more than five conference matches in a single season and no more than three under Coach Piontek.
• Central Missouri is a combined 69-7-1 against their opponents this weekend. The Bronchos and Jens have only faced each other 14 times with UCM coming out on top in 12. Pittsburg State is one of Central Missouri's longest rivals. The Jennies are 57-5-1 all-time against PSU.
• At 1,396 wins, Central Missouri is only four shy of reaching 1,400 all-time wins.
• The Jennies went 30-5 in 2015, and won their 14th MIAA Tournament Championship.
Quick Hits
UCM in the Polls
After going 4-0 at the Peggy Martin Crossover Challenge, Central Missouri moved up one spot from No. 11 to No. 10 in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll. UCM started the season at No. 9 in the preseason poll and have been ranked as high as No. 6 this season. Of the four polls, UCM has been in the top-10 in three. The Jens have been ranked in every AVCA poll since its inception in 1986, a span of 386 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.
Conference Leader Board (as of 9/20/2016)
The Jennies remain one of the top defensive teams in the MIAA in terms of digs. They're third in the conference in digs per set with 17.00.
Katie Carlson has been the biggest reason for that, leading the team with 4.51 digs per set which is second in the conference.
Kylie Hohlen has also contributed with 3.44 digs per set
On the offensive end of the floor, Central Missouri leads the MIAA averaging 14.39 kills per set.
Cheyanne Lyons is the team leader and is third in the league at 3.71 kills per set.
Kasey Hohlen is eighth at 3.00 kills per set. Hohlen and
Mackenzie Harding are 6th and 7th in the MIAA in attack percentage at .368 and .367, respectively.
Kourtney Thompson is up to fifth in the MIAA in assists per set with 10.22. Her 419 total assists are fourth the MIAA. Thompson finished third in the league each of the last two seasons, averaging 10.69 assists per set last season and 10.27 in 2014.
Jennies Records
Jennies setter
Kourtney Thompson is up to 419 assists through eight games this season. She now has 2,857 career assists. Her 9.75 assists per set already ranks seventh all-time in Jennies history. To reach 10th in career assists at UCM, Thompson needs 769 more.
Jazzy Juniors
Three juniors have already been putting up career numbers. After seeing limited playing time their first two seasons,
Katie Carlson and
Molly Lawrence have provided helping hands in the Jennies 10 wins this season. Carlson has been the Jennies starting libero and leads UCM with 185 digs.
On the offensive end,
Molly Lawrence has already surpassed her career total entering the year in kills. She has 74 kills which is fourth on the team, and landed a career-high 13 against West Florida. She also leads UCM with 33 blocks. Â
Savvy Seniors
All four Jennies seniors have made an impact this season.
Cheyanne Lyons leads the team and is third in the MIAA with 3.71 kills per set.
Kourtney Thompson is having a big year averaging 10.22 assists, 1.49 kills and 2.37 digs per set.
Maddie Jones missed five games before returning to action and is still tied for second on the team with 19 blocks. Finally
Mackenzie Harding has started the past seven matches and is hitting .367 with 48 kills and 18 blocks. Â
Versus Ranked Opponents
The Jennies so far this season are 2-2 against ranked opponents. Last year, the Jennies went 5-4 aganst AVCA top-25 teams and are 54-32 under Coach Piontek. The Jennies will take on a ranked opponent each of the first two weeks of the MIAA play starting with No. 7 Central Oklahoma this week. Oct. 1, UCM takes on currently ranked third Nebraska-Kearney. Their match against Central Oklahoma will be their second meeting with a top-10 team this season. UCM's first loss came against then-ranked No. 2 Wheeling Jesuit.
Roll out the Red Carpet
Three weeks into the season and the Jennies have picked up an MIAA award each week. The Jennies started the season with back-to-back MIAA Specialists of the Week in
Kourtney Thompson and
Katie Carlson. The last two weeks have belonged to the hitters as
Kasey Hohlen and
Cheyanne Lyons each brought home their first career MIAA awards.
New Faces
So far this season, five Jennies have seen the floor who didn't a season ago. Redshirt freshmen
Carly Offerdahl and
Tyler Downs saw their first action in two years and freshmen
Rylee Neigenfind and
Abby Skrastins, along with transfer
Fuatino Manu, have seen plenty of court time.
Hot Starts
The Jennies have won the opening set in 11 of 12 matches thus far in 2016. They've scored 298 points, their most in any set and are 10-0 when they win the first set. Last season, the Jennies won the opening set in 28 of 35 matches.
Scouting the Opponents
No. 7 Central Oklahoma Bronchos
• For the second straight week, Central Oklahoma is ranked No. 7 in the AVCA Coaches Poll.
• Central Oklahoma is yet to lose a match this year. They've started out 13-0 and have put up 3-0 victories in 12 of their 13 matches.
• The Bronchos rank fifth in the NCAA in both hitting percentage (.284) and opponent hitting percentage (.087).
• Central Oklahoma leads the MIAA in assists per set with 13.21. Katy Davis is the Bronchos primary setter with 11.55 assists per set which is second in the MIAA and seventh in the NCAA.
• Central Oklahoma's offense is led by the sophomore tandem of Taylor Bevis and Ijeoma Njenje. The two outside hitters each have more than 100 kills with Bevis' 140 leading the way. Her 3.50 kills per set are fourth in the MIAA. Njenje is landing 2.92 kills per set herself.
• Bevis is also a big help on defense with 115 digs. She is one of three Bronchos to have recorded more than 100 digs thus far through the season. Bonnie Vernon is the team leader with 139 digs while Dominique Lipari is averaging the most digs on a per-set basis with 3.78.
• The Bronchos score a number of points off the serve, averaging 1.65 aces per set this season. Mehana Fonseca is the primary cause for that with 21 of the teams 66 service aces. No other Broncho has reached 10.
• Central Oklahoma is +30 in the blocking category with 80 blocks to their opponents 50. Four Bronchos have recorded at least 20 blocks this season with Allison Barr's 36 leading the way. Of Bevis' 14 blocks, she has a team-high eight solo blocks.
Pittsburg State Gorillas
• Pittsburg State is under the direction of first year Head Coach Jen Gomez. After going just 2-27 last season, the Gorillas have started this season with a 2-10 record.
• After dropping their first eight matches, Pittsburg State went 2-2 last weekend defeating Oklahoma Baptist and East Central of the Great American Conference.
• The Gorillas are being out-done by their opponents in every facet of the game. They are nearly even in total blocks, only being out-blocked 77-72.5. Taylor Unke leads PSU with 32 total blocks.
• Two Gorillas are up over 100 kills entering conference season. Peyton Walker leads the team with 118 kills and Maggie Highberger is right behind her with 115. Walker also has a team-leadiing .206 attack percentage.
• Pittsburg State has a nearly 1:2 ratio of service aces per error. As a team PSU has landed 44 aces while committed 84 service errors. Taylor Wright leads Pittsburg State with eight aces.
• Ashlen Schwartz is just outside the MIAA top-10 in digs per set with 3.67. She leads the Gorillas with 165 total digs and also has a team-best 175 service receptions.
• In the Gorillas win against Oklahoma Baptist last weekend, PSU hit for a season-best .239 attack percentage. They've also landed 50+ kills in three of their last five matches.
• The Jennies and Gorillas have a familial connection. UCM freshman
Hannah VanBuskirk has a sister, Carolina VanBuskirk on the PSU squad. Carolina leads Pittsburg State with 253 assists and her 6.17 assists per set is 10th in the MIAA.
