Two Matches, One at Home for Volleyball This Weekend

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Oct. 5, 2017) - The Jennies return home Saturday afternoon, but not before wrapping up their road trip Friday in Bolivar.

Opponents: Southwest Baptist (2-16, 1-4 MIAA)
                     Missouri Southern (9-9, 2-3 MIAA)

Where: Bolivar, Mo. - John Q. Hammons Court
              Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building 

When: Friday, Oct. 6 - 7 pm at Southwest Baptist
            Saturday, Oct. 7 - 4 pm vs. Missouri Southern

How to Watch
• Matches this weekend will be webcast online through Central Missouri's Blueframe Internet portal on the MIAA Network at TheMIAANetwork.com/ucmmules It is a pay-per-view broadcast. Live stats can be found at UCMathletics.com.

First Serve
• Central Missouri dropped two spots in the rankings to No. 20 this week after going 2-1 last week. Two weeks ago they reached their highest position in the poll, No. 15 after starting the season at No. 21 in the preseason poll.  
• The Jennies complete a four-game road trip to start the week with their match Friday at Southwest Baptist. They return home for just their third match of the season Saturday, to take on Missouri Southern. 
• This weekend the Jennies will remain in the state of Missouri. They travel to Bolivar to take on 2-16 (1-4 MIAA) Southwest Baptist. The Bearcats won their first MIAA match this season but have since lost four straight. The Lions meanwhile are 2-3 in the MIAA and 9-9 overall. They dropped two last weekend at Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri. 

Story Lines
• Combined, Southwest Baptist and Missouri Southern have just two wins all-time against Central Missouri. UCM is 63-1 against the Bearcats and 65-1-1 against the Lions. The Bearcats started out the rivalry at 1-0 with a win in their first ever meeting back in 1977. The Lions lone win against the Jennies was also more than 20 years ago. They defeated UCM 3-2 in 1995.
• The home match against the Lions will be their only one until Oct. 17. Next weekend the Jennies continue to add up the miles by traveling to Fort Hays State and Nebraska-Kearney. They're finally home for four straight games from Oct. 17-24. 
• The Jennies will make up the difference later in the season. Starting in the middle of October, seven of their final 10 matches are at home. 
• Last season, UCM went 11-7 in conference and finished fourth overall in the regular season.
• The Jennies went 23-10 overall in 2016, their 36th straight season with at least 20 wins. 

Quick Hits
Last Time Out
Central Missouri went 1-1 last weekend, rebounding with a 3-0 win at Emporia State after falling 3-2 to Washburn Friday night. Hannah VanBuskirk set a new career high with 22 kills against the Ichabods, the highest for a Jen this season. Ally Offerdahl also set a new career-best with 55 assists. 

UCM in the Polls
The Jennies continued to slide down in the rankings this week. They fell to spots from No. 18 to No. 20. They were ranked 15th in the AVCA for two weeks after starting the year at No. 21. They are the third-highest ranked MIAA team in the poll. The Jens have been ranked in every AVCA poll since its inception in 1986, and last week, hit 403 straight weeks, the longest in the AVCA. 

Conference Leader Board (as of 10/4/2017)
Central Missouri's offense is at the top of the league in three major categories. UCM leads the MIAA with 13.30 assists per set as well as kills with 14.20 and are in the top-15 in the NCAA in both. They are second in the league with a .243 attack percentage. 

Ally Offerdahl has been the one racking up the assists. Her 11.21 assists per set is second in the MIAA and is 20th in the NCAA. Kasey Hohlen leads the MIAA and is 25th in the NCAA with a .375 attack percentage. She is also eighth in kills per set with 3.23. Freshman Aubrey Fisher is 10th with 3.02 kills per set and her .329 attack percentage is fourth. 

Defensively, Kylie Hohlen leads the league and 12th in Division II with 6.10 digs per set.

Audrey Fisher is not only fifth in the league in hitting percentage, she is at the top of the conference with 0.38 service aces per set. 

Individual Milestones
• Kasey Hohlen needs three more kills for 200 for the season. It would be the second 200-kill season of her career.
• Audree Fisher is 17 kills shy of 200.
• Kylie Hohlen is at exactly 600 career points. She also needs 25 more digs to reach 1200. 
• Molly Lawrence is three blocks away from reaching 100. 

MIAA Awards
For the first time this season, Central Missouri did not garner an MIAA weekly award. The Jennies had been 4-for-4 in weekly accolades prior to this week. Ally Offerdahl earned her first career MIAA Specialist of the Week award last week. Kylie Hohlen has picked up two Specialist of the Week awards to give her four for her career. The awards started with Kasey Hohlen earning the first Hitter of the Week award of the 2017 season. 

Fabulous Freshmen
They aren't household names yet, but they are starting to be. Three true freshmen and one redshirt freshman have started at least 15 of 17 games. Setter Ally Offerdahl is most involved in the team's offense passing out 11.21 assists per set. Audrey Fisher and Aubree Bell are each over 100 kills for season. Redshirt freshman Hannah VanBuskirk is also averaging more than two kills per set and is fourth on the team with 20 total blocks. 

Stifling Defense
Five Jennies are now averaging at least two digs per set through eight matches this season. Kylie Hohlen's 6.10 leads the team. Senior Katie Carlson has 162 digs and 2.66 digs per set and both Offerdahl's as well with Carly coming up with 2.36 digs per set and Ally 2.16. Aubree Bell is now at exactly 2.00 digs per set after her double-double last weekend against Emporia State.

The Jens have also been seeing an uptick in their blocking numbers. Molly Lawrence has 18 blocks in her last seven matches. Kasey Hohlen leads the team with 44 and Audrey Fisher has 34. In all, six Jennies have 10+ blocks.

.300 or Better
If you didn't see the match, a good way to see if UCM won is to look at the hitting percentage. Under Coach Piontek, Central Missouri 102-0 when they hit at least .300. While it hasn't happened often under Piontek, UCM is also just 3-10 when surrendering a .300 attack percentage to their opponent. 

Double-Dipping
Only two Jennies this season have recorded a double-double. Ally Offerdahl has five assist-dig double-doubles while Aubree Bell has three kill-dig double-doubles. No Jennies has recorded a triple-double since Sarah Dallas in 1997. Offerdahl seems to have the best chance. She's been in double-figure assists every game this season and has five double-digit dig matches. Her career-high in kills is eight. 

Scouting the Opposition 
Southwest Baptist Bearcats (2-16, 1-4 MIAA)
• Southwest Baptist has won only two games this year in 18 matches. They lost their first 10 matches of the season. The Bearcats are 1-4 in the MIAA having lost four straight. 
• SBU is yet to win a match on the road. They are 0-5 away from Bolivar, but just 1-5 when playing on their home court. 
• The Beracats were picked to finish last in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll. 
• Three Bearcats have more than 100 kills for the season. Dana Neal leads the team having landed 136 and Katie Robinson is right behind her with 126. Of the two, Robinson has the highest attack percentage, leading the team at .252. Mikhaela Cochran is also over 100 kills with 102. 
• The Bearcats have used a pair of setters at times, but have mostly relied on Brea Freeman. Freeman is averaging 6.33 assists per set and has 386 total for the season. Ashleigh DeWees has also been deployed at the setter position. She has 113 assists and averages 2.26 per set. Most of DeWees' assists came at the beginning of the season. 
• Freeman is also the team's leader when it comes to service aces. She has 14 on the season and her 0.30 aces per set rank ninth in the MIAA. Neal is the only other Bearcat with more than 10, having landed 12 aces thus far in 2017. The Bearcats have a total of just 68 service aces while having allowed 109. 
• The only team in the MIAA with fewer blocks per set than Southwest Baptist is Central Missouri. The Bearcats average 1.66 blocks per set. Robinson is the team's leading blocker. She is ninth in the MIAA with 0.82 blocks per set. 
• Bailey Baumann is ninth in the league in digs per set. She leads the Bearcats with 244 total digs and averages 4.00 digs per set. Neal and Freeman are both over 100 digs with 134 and 118 digs each.
• The Bearcats .106 hitting percentage ranks 254th out of 290 in Division II. 

Missouri Southern Lions (9-9, 2-3 MIAA)
• With just one more win, Missouri Southern will reach 10 for the season, something they haven't done since 2010. The Lions enter the weekend at 9-9 and 2-3 in the MIAA. 
• The Lions have played well at home with a 5-0 record but have struggled on the road. They are yet to win a true road game going 0-5. 
• The Lions hired a familiar face to be their new assistant coach this past offseason. Former UCM All-American Carly Sojka joined the Missouri Southern coaching staff in 2017. Sojka played from 2012-15 with the Jennies and was the graduate assistant coach in 2016. She was a two-time All-American for the Jennies and is fourth in program history in kills. 
• Missouri Southern has a number of nice pieces on their team starting with Alicia Pickett. She leads the MIAA in blocks per set with 1.23 and has 79 total on the season. She is 19th in Division II. 
• Janelle Brehm is third in the league in kills with 3.55 per set. The Lions set her up a lot. She is second in Division II with 790 total attacks. In addition to Brehm, Pickett has 156 kills and Bailey Rexford has 139. 
• Morgan Nash is responsible for getting the ball to Brehm and Pickett. The setter averages 10.10 assists per set and has 636 on the season. Both of those numbers are fourth in the MIAA.  
• The Lions are seventh in the MIAA both in service aces and service aces allowed. They've landed 74 while allowing 72. Pickett is also the team's leader in aces with 16. She is one of four with at least 10 aces. 
• Five Lions have totaled more than 100 digs thus far. Teryn Scott leads the team with 224 and 3.50 per set. Nash has 181, Brehm 149, Kat Gries 137 and Marija Milivojev 125.
• Missouri Southern is just under a .200 team hitting percentage. They have a season average so far of .198 and are holding opponents to a .191 attack percentage.