Volleyball to Hold Senior Night Friday

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Nov. 8, 2017) - It'll be a special night at the UCM Multipurpose Building Friday night as Jennies Volleyball honors their four seniors after their final home game of the regular season.

Opponents: Southwest Baptist (2-28, 1-15 MIAA)
                    Missouri Southern (11-18, 4-12 MIAA)

Where: Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building 
             Joplin, Mo. - Robert Ellis Young Gym 
            
When: Friday, Nov. 10 - vs. Southwest Baptist - 7 p.m.
           Saturday, Nov. 11 at Missouri Southern - 6 p.m.

How to Watch
• This weekends match 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 went 2-0 last week and are back on a two match winning streak. They remained at No. 19 in the AVCA rankings and No. 9 in the NCAA Regional rankings this week. They have been ranked no lower than 20th in the coaches poll all season long. 
• UCM is looking to sweep the season series with both Southwest Baptist and Missouri Southern.
• This is the final weekend of play in the MIAA regular season. UCM has just two matches left, one at home and one on the road. The home match, Friday, November 10 at 7 p.m. will be senior night where the Jennies recognize their four seniors, Katie Carlson, Kasey Hohlen, Molly Lawrence and Fuatino Manu. 
• Southwest Baptist has won just two games this season and are 2-28 overall. Missouri Southern is only slightly better with a 4-12 conference record and 11-18 overall. Missouri Southern can enter a tie for 8th place in the MIAA with two wins this weekend and two ESU losses.

Story Lines
• Combined, Southwest Baptist and Missouri Southern have just two wins all-time against Central Missouri. UCM is 64-1 against the Bearcats and 66-1-1 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.
• A win in either match will ensure that the Jennies are home for the first round of the MIAA Championship game played at campus site. The date for that is Tuesday, Nov. 14 with a 7 p.m. first serve. UCM is currently fourth in the MIAA standings, but can move all the way up to No. 2 by the end of the weekend. 
• Central Missouri volleyball has finished no lower than fourth in the MIAA in team history. 
• 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 picked up two wins last weekend defeating Washburn and Emporia State. Aubree Bell and Audrey Fisher had more than 10 kills in both matches. Fisher also hit more than .340 in both matches and totaled 12 blocks. Ally Offerdahl had 39 assists in the win against Emporia State. 

UCM in the Polls
The Jennies remained 19th in the most recent AVCA poll for the second straight week. They reached a high of No. 15 Sept. 11 and have been no lower than 20th all season long. 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 this week, hit 407 straight weeks, the longest in the AVCA. 

In the NCAA Regional Rankings, the Jennies came in at No. 9 for the second straight week. The top eight teams make the NCAA regional with automatic bids going to conference tournament champions out of the MIAA, Northern Sun and GAC conferences. 

Conference Leader Board (as of 11/7/2017)
Central Missouri's offense is at the top of the league in three major categories. UCM leads the MIAA with 13.40 assists per set as well as kills with 14.47 and are ranked in the top-15 in the NCAA in both. They are second in the league with a .38 attack percentage. 

Ally Offerdahl has been the one racking up the assists. Her 11.25 assists per set is second in the MIAA and is 22nd in the NCAA. Kasey Hohlen leads the MIAA and is 31st in the NCAA with a .357 attack percentage. She is also fourth in kills per set with 3.55. Freshman Audrey Fisher's .325 attack percentage is fifth in the MIAA. 

Defensively, Kylie Hohlen leads the league and ninth in Division II with 6.21 digs per set.

Audrey Fisher is not only fifth in the league in hitting percentage, she is also second in the conference with 0.38 service aces per set and 38 total aces. 

Around the MIAA
This is the final week of matches in the MIAA regular season. Five teams have at least 10 wins and Nebraska-Kearney tops the conference at 15-1. Missouri Western, Central Oklahoma and Central Missouri are all separated by just one game in league play while Northwest Missouri is 10-6. Only one other team, Lindenwood is above .500 at 9-7. Eight teams make up the MIAA Tournament. The above six teams along with Washburn and Emporia State would make the playoffs should the season end today. Missouri Southern is two games back in ninth place. 

Individual Milestones
• Abby Skrastins needs just two digs to reach 200. 
• Molly Lawrence needs one more kills for 400 in her career. 
• Katie Carlson is 26 digs away from hitting 700. 
• Aubree Bell can have 200 kills and 200 digs with nine more digs. Kylie Hohlen was the last Jennie to do that in 2015.
• With nine blocks, Kasey Hohlen will reach 200 in her career and needs 29 kills for 800. 
• Kylie Hohlen needs just one more kill for 500 and went over 1400 career digs last week. 

.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 104-0 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. The Jennies hit .311 in their match with UCO. 

Double-Dipping
Only two Jennies this season have recorded a double-double. Ally Offerdahl has 11 assist-dig double-doubles while Aubree Bell has six 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 11 double-digit dig matches. Her career-high in kills is eight and was four kills shy of a double-double last weekend against Washburn.  

Home Cooking
Central Missouri has started out the year at 9-0 at home this season with just one match left in the regular season and a possible home MIAA Tournament match left to play. The Jennies have gone undefeated at home seven times previously, with the last being in 2013. 

Scouting the Opposition
Southwest Baptist Bearcats 
• Southwest Baptist has won only two games this year in 30 matches. They are currently on a 16 match losing streak. Their only MIAA win came against Pittsburg State.
• One of SBU's two wins have come in Bolivar, that being the 3-2 win against the Gorillas. Southwest Baptist is 1-11 at home this season. 
• The Beracats have won only three sets in their last 10 matches. 
• Three Bearcats have more than 100 kills for the season and two have just cracked 200. Katie Robinson leads the team with 203 while Dana Neal is right behind her with 201. Mikhaela Cochran also has more than 100 kills with 131. Neal's 2.26 kills per set are a team-best. 
• The Bearcats have used a pair of setters at times, but have mostly relied on Brea Freeman. Freeman is averaging 6.08 assists per set and has 614 total for the season. Ashleigh DeWees has also been deployed at the setter position. She has 144 assists and averages 2.03 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 22 on the season to pace the Bearcats. Neal is also in double-digits with service aces having landed 16. Bailey Baumann has 13 and Emily Thompson and Robinson each have 12. The Bearcats have a total of just 99 service aces while having allowed 193. 
• The only team in the MIAA with fewer blocks per set than Southwest Baptist is Central Missouri. The Bearcats average 1.71 blocks per set. Robinson is the team's leading blocker with 80 and 0.82 blocks per set. 
• Bailey Baumann is 10th in the league in digs per set. She leads the Bearcats with 315 total digs and averages 3.62 digs per set. Neal and Freeman are both over 100 digs with 206 and 191 digs each.
• The Bearcats .080 hitting percentage ranks 275th out of 290 in Division II. 

Missouri Southern Lions
• Missouri Southern has reached 10 wins for the first time since 2010. They are 11-18 overall and 4-12 in the MIAA, but have lost four in a row.  
• The Lions have played well at home with a 6-5 record, but are 0-3 in their last three matches in Joplin, Mo. 
• 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 1.22 and has 127 total on the season. She is 23rd in Division II. 
• Janelle Brehm is fifth in the league in kills with 3.33 per set. The Lions set her up a lot. She is seventh in Division II with 1,226 total attacks. In addition to Brehm, Pickett has 251 kills and Bailey Rexford has 249. 
• Morgan Nash is responsible for getting the ball to Brehm and Pickett. The setter averages 9.98 assists per set and has 988 on the season. Both of those numbers are fifth in the MIAA.  
• The Lions are ninth in the MIAA in service aces and seventh service aces allowed. They've landed 111 while allowing 125. Nash and Marija Milivojev share the team lead with 21 aces. 
• Four Lions have totaled more than 200 digs thus far. Teryn Scott leads the team with 340 and 3.37 per set. Nash has 267, Brehm 255, and Kat Gries 212.
• Missouri Southern is just under a .200 team hitting percentage. They have a season average so far of .181 and are holding opponents to a .208 attack percentage.