Jennies Begin MIAA Play at Home

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Sept. 21, 2017) - The MIAA season is here and Central Missouri has their home opener Friday to kick off league play.

When: Friday-Saturday, Sept. 22-23

Where: Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building

Opponents: Northwest Missouri - Sept. 22, 6 p.m.
                     Missouri Western - Sept. 23, 3 p.m.

First Serve
• The Jennies stayed at No. 15 this week in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Their ranking of 15th is the highest they've been all season after starting at No. 21 in the Coaches Poll and moving up to No. 16 two weeks ago. 
• Northwest Missouri is off to a 6-6 start in 2017. They went 2-2 last weekend at the Arkansas-Fort Smith Tournament with wins over Newman and Henderson State. 
• Missouri Western was also at the Arkansas Fort Smith Tournament and went 2-2 as well with wins over Newman and Henderson State. The Griffons played earlier in the week, losing to Truman State and stand at 6-7 heading into MIAA play. 

On The Air
• 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.

Story Lines
• Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri are two of Central Missouri longest tenured rivals. The teams have played a combined 179 matches with the Jennies holding a 170-13 combined edge over their two opponents, but both teams split in the regular season with UCM in 2016.
• The Griffons are just 6-79 all-time against UCM, but have won one match against UCM each of the past two years. Prior to that, the Jennies had won 19 straight over MWSU with their last loss coming back in 2005.
• UCM is 91-7 all-time against NWMSU. The Bearcats win over the Jennies in 2016 was their first win since 1984. 
• This weekend marks the start of the MIAA season.
• 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 3-1 at the Arkansas Tech Holiday Inn Express Spikefest. The team lost their first match against the host Golden Suns before winning their final three. A win on Friday against Northwest Missouri would match their longest winning streak of the season at four. 

UCM in the Polls
The Jennies are ranked 15th for the second straight week. They were ranked No. 21 to start the season and have continued to move up. 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 401 straight weeks, the longest in the AVCA. 

Conference Leader Board (as of 9/21/2017)
Central Missouri's offense is at the top of the league in three major categories. UCM leads the MIAA with 3.24 assists per set and is second with 14.10 kills per set and third with a .246 attack percentage. Ally Offerdahl has been the one racking up the assists. Her 11.14 assists per set lead the MIAA. Kasey Hohlen is sixth in the league with 3.10 kills per set and third with a .347 attack percentage. Freshman Aubrey Fisher is eighth with 2.95 kills per set and her .352 attack percentage is second. 

Defensively, Kylie Hohlen leads the league and sixth in Division II with 6.36 digs per set and 267 digs in 42 sets. 

Individual Milestones
Last weekend Katie Carlson surpassed 500 career digs and now stands at 511. Carly Offerdahl is also closing in on 500 digs and needs just 14 more. 

Kasey Hohlen collected her 500th career kill two weeks ago against Ferris State and knocked back her 150th career block last weekend in Arkansas.

Kylie Hohlen needs one more kill to reach 500 for her career. She also went over 1,000 career digs last weekend.

MIAA Awards
Central Missouri is 3-for-3 in the MIAA in garnering weekly accolades. Kylie Hohlen has picked up back-to-back 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 the Jennies have leaned hard on a number of freshmen. Three true freshmen and one redshirt freshman have started all eight games. Setter Ally Offerdahl is most involved in the team's offense passing out 11.14 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 13 total blocks. 

Stifling Defense
Four Jennies are averaging at least two digs per set through eight matches this season. Kylie Hohlen's 6.36 leads the team. Senior Katie Carlson has 113 digs and 2.69 digs per set and the Offerdahl's just qualify with Ally recording 2.14 and Carly 2.12 digs per set. Aubree Bell is nearing 2.00 digs per set as well with 1.86. 

Along with that, Central Missouri is allowing less than 1.00 service ace per set, giving up just 35 aces in 42 sets. Conversely, UCM has landed 55 aces with Kylie Hohlen's 14 leading the way. Audrey Fisher's 13 are second on the team and Katie Carlson has 10. 

Sharing the Love
Five different Jennies have already reached 60 kills this season with three over 110. Kasey Hohlen leads the team with 130, followed closely by Fisher's 124 and Bell's 114. VanBuskirk and Molly Lawrence are also in on the action with 82 and 62 kills respectively. 

.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. 

Scouting the Opposition
Northwest Missouri Bearcats (6-6, 0-0 MIAA)
• Northwest Missouri is 6-6 to start the year. They had a three match winning streak earlier in the season, but have since lost two of their last three.
• The Bearcats are 1-2 in road games and have yet to play at home.
• Only one Bearcat has more than 100 kills so far this season and that is 2016 First-Team MIAA selection Maddy Bruder. The Outside Hitter leads NWMSU with 148 kills and 3.22 kills per set which is sixth in the league.
• Behind Bruder is Darcy Sunderman who has 91 kills and Morgan Lewis with 79.
• Sarah Dannettell averages 7.30 assists to lead the Bearcats. She also has picked up 33 kills and 114 digs with seven total blocks this season.
• Lewis has been the team's top-blocker this season with 37. The Bearcats 1.92 blocks per set are ninth in the MIAA. In addition to Lewis, Alexis Williams has 28, Bruder has 22 and Sunderman has 20.
• The Bearcat defense has been off to a good start this season. They rank 24th and lead the MIAA in digs per set with 18.89 and are 10th in total digs with 869.
• The leader of the dig party has been All-MIAA libero Olivia Nowakowski. She averages 5.40 digs per set which is third in the league. Nowakowski is one of four Bearcats with more than 100 digs this season. Bruder has 142 and 3.09 per set. Sunderman has collected 3.11 digs per set and Dannettel is at 2.48.
• Nowakowski and Dannettell also help out the Bearcat offense on the serve. They lead the team with 10 service aces each. NWMSU is getting out-aced this season 60-45.
• The Bearcats are hitting .166 as a team with 571 total kills and 264 errors on 1844 attempts. Their total attacks and 40.09 attacks per set are 11th in Division II.

Missouri Western Griffons (6-7, 0-0 MIAA)
• Missouri Western, with their loss on Tuesday is 6-7 to start the year. They had a three match winning streak earlier in the season, but have since lost four of their last six.
• The Griffons are yet to win a match on the road this year at 0-2 and went 6-4 at neutral sites.
• Three Griffons already have more than 100 kills this season. Stephanie Doak has 174 kills to lead the way and is second in the MIAA with 3.95 kills per set and her 174 total kills are tops in the league. 
• After Doak is Ali Tauchen who had 134 kills and Shellby Taylor who has 115. 
• Lauren Murphy is the team's setter and her 10.85 assists per set rank third in the MIAA. She's had at least 40 assists in each of the last four matches with a season-best 53 against Henderson State in four sets. 
• The Griffons 91 total blocks has them sixth in the conference and in the top-40 in Division II. Two Griffons are in the top-15 in blocks per set in the MIAA. Tauchen is 12th with 0.83 blocks per set and Rachel Losch is 14th with 0.80 blocks per set.
• The Griffon defense is also led by Kayla Ruff. She is averaging 5.22 digs per set and has 240 total digs. Their 18.28 digs per set is third in the MIAA and 37th in the nation. 
• Three other Griffons also have more than 100 digs. Tauchen is averaging 2.76 digs per set with 127 total. Audrey Keim has 10 fewer with 117 and is averaging 2.54 digs per set and Amanda Dalby recently went over 100 with 104 digs and 2.26 digs per set.
• The Griffons have 49 service aces this season, led by Ruff's 10. Dalbey and M. Sellers-Wiebe each have nine service aces. MWSU has given up 45 aces to opponents. 
• As a team, the Griffons are hitting .185 which is eighth in the MIAA. Tauchen and Taylor are each hitting over .200 and Doak is hitting .168 this year.