Jennies Volleyball Returns Home This Weekend

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Oct. 24, 2019) - No. 10 Central Missouri Jennies Volleyball is back home in Warrensburg this weekend for a pair of MIAA matches.

Opponents
Pittsburg State Gorillas (11-10, 6-6 MIAA)
Missouri Southern Lions (12-10, 5-7 MIAA)

Where
Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building

When
Friday, Oct. 25 vs. Pittsburg State - 6 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 26 vs. Missouri Southern - 7 p.m.

How to Watch
• This weekend's matches will have live video that will be available on the Jennies BlueFrame portal page at www.themiaanetwork.com/ucmmules. Live stats for each match can be found at www.ucmathletics.com

First Serve
• Central Missouri returns home for a pair of MIAA matches this weekend. 
• The Jennies will host Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern Friday and Saturday, October 25-26.
• Last week, UCM went 2-1 all on the road.
• Central Missouri cracked the AVCA top-10 last week and come in at No. 10 in the rankings this week.

Story Lines
• At home this season, the Jennies are 3-2. All of their home games have been MIAA contests and they've won three straight at the Multi. 
• Central Missouri has just six combined losses against this weekend's opponents. They are 70-1-1 all-time against the Lions and 62-5-1 against Pittsburg State
• The Lions only win came back in 1995. 
• Coach Piontek has never lost to the Lions and has just one loss to the Gorillas, back in his first year in 2009. The Jens have gone 19-0 against Pittsburg State since that loss. 
• Coach Piontek is nearing 300 career wins. He is six away from that total with nine games left in the regular season.

Quick Hits
Last Time Out
• Central Missouri was on the road for three matches last week. They defeated No. 14 Northwest Missouri in straight sets before falling to No. 4 Washburn. They finished up the weekend with a sweep of Emporia State.

Previously Against Pittsburg State/Missouri Southern
• The Jennies defeated both of these opponents on the road at the end of September. UCM swept the Gorillas getting 13 kills from Sydney Lierz and 12 from Audrey Fisher. Pittsburg State hit .047 in the match. The Jens won in four games against Missouri Southern. They hit .361 for the match with 55 kills. Lierz landed a match-high 19 kills and both Audrey Fisher and Aubree Bell hit .412. 

UCM in the Polls
• In the American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Poll, the Jennies fell a spot and this week rank 10th. It is their 433nd time ranked in the top-25, by far the most in Division II.  
• In the MIAA preseason poll, the Jens were picked to finish third behind Washburn and Nebraska-Kearney. They finished with 83 points and two first place votes. 

Individual Milestones
• Ally Offerdahl is closing in on the UCM all-time top-10 in assists. Tenth place is 3,627. Offerdahl needs 186 more to get into the top-10. She is also 13 kills away from 300.
• Aubree Bell is nearing 600 kills needing 27 more.
• Hannah Engelken will get to 200 blocks with three more.
• Sydney Lierz is five kills away from 200. 
• Rylee Neigenfind will hit 500 kills with 11 more.

.300 or Better
• If you didn't see the match, a good way to know if UCM won is to look at the hitting percentage. Under Coach Piontek, Central Missouri 116-0 when they hit at least .300. While it hasn't happened often under Piontek, UCM is just 3-13 when surrendering a .300 attack percentage to their opponent. The Jennies hit a season-high .488 in their win over Newman and they hit better than .300 in two straight matches. 

Top-25 Opponents
• Last season, the Jennies played 12 top-25 ranked teams among their 33 matches. They went 5-7 in those games. Things weren't much different to start 2019. Eight of the first 10 teams they faced were ranked or receiving votes in the top-25, including No. 1 overall, and defending champions Tampa. The Jennies are off to a 3-6 start this season against ranked opponents. The Jennies next likely ranked opponent will be Nebraska-Kearney November 2. 

Drama Club
• Facing a number of tough opponents, it's not hard to see why so many of their matches have gone to four and five sets. They've played six matches to four sets and five to five sets. 
• Of their 77 sets, 36 have been decided by just five points or less. The Jens are 17-16 in those 33 sets. 

MIAA Leaders
• In MIAA only games, the Jennies have the best attack percentage in the league at .268. They also average the most kills with 14.62, assists with 13.38 and the most aces at 1.51.
• Audrey Fisher is in the MIAA top-10 in both hitting percentage and aces. She leads the league both in MIAA only matches hitting .404 and .374 overall. She's eighth overall with 0.31 aces per match and her 0.33 in conference matches are fifth-highest. 
• Hannah Engelken also sees her name twice in the top-10. She is fifth in the league in blocks per set with 0.92. Her .254 attack percentage is also in the top-20 at 17th.
• Sydney Lierz ranks 11th with 2.83 kills per set overall and third in MIAA games with 3.49. 
• In MIAA games, Ally Offerdahls 11.51 assists per set are the most in the league. 
• Abby Skarstins is fourth in digs both in conference games (5.41) and overall (5.06)

50 Years of Excellence 
• The 2019 season will mark the 50th in the storied history of Jennies Volleyball. All season long the Jennies will be celebrating that history with special events.
• Similar to the Silver Anniversary Team of 1994, the Jennies came out with a Gold Anniversary Team, adding 18 players from the past 25 years to the Silver Anniversary Team.
• The biggest event will be Oct. 12 during homecoming, when members of the 50 year team are invited back for a special celebration, including an on-court ceremony. 
• During each home match this season, UCM will recognize two of the newest members of the 50 year team. 

Scouting the Opposition
Pittsburg State Gorillas (11-10, 6-6 MIAA)
• Pittsburg State is right in the thick of things in the MIAA with a 6-6 conference record. They have won two straight to improve to 11-10 overall. Away from home though, the Gorillas are just 3-4 and 2-3 in true road games. 
• Erika Ivkov sits just outside the top-five in the MIAA in kills per set with 3.21. She has 241. Also with more than 200 kills on the season is Morgan Henning with 220. Henning is also second in the MIAA hitting .357.
• As a team, the Gorillas are hitting .189 and holding opponents to .181.
• Blocking has been an issue for Pittsburg State. They are last in the league both having allowed 2.13 blocks per set and scoring just 1.27 themselves. 
• Pitt State typically shares setting duties. Brianna Richard and Laura Willoughby each average more than five assists per set. Richard is at 6.22 while Willoughby has 5.67.
• Ivkov also scores for the Gorillas off the serve. she has a team-best 26 this season. The Gorillas have 91 this season and have committed 122 service errors. Their 0.99 opponent service aces are fourth lowest in the MIAA.
• Pittsburg State is digging out 17.14 attacks per set. They have two with more than three digs per set and five with more than two. Marissa Bates leads the squad with 3.94 digs per set.
• Emily Regier and Claire Sandvig are both in the MIAA top-20 in blocks per set. Regier is 10th with 0.74 and Sandvig is 17th with 0.67. Reiger's 11 solo blocks are tied for the third most. 

Missouri Southern Lions (12-10, 5-7 MIAA)
• Missouri Southern is off to one of their best starts this decade. With a 12-10 record the Lions already have their most wins since 2010. The Lions are 5-7 in the league, however just 1-4 when playing on the road.
• One area the Lions have been excelling in is defense. Missouri Southern is fifth in the MIAA with 17.31 digs per set. They also are first in blocks with 2.01 per set. Brooklyn McCain has been the leader when it comes to digs. She has 3.94 digs per set this season. Janelle Brehm and Emalee Lowe also average more than 3.0 digs per set. Alicia Pickett leads the Lions with 1.01 blocks per set which is second in the MIAA
• Brehm is also the Lions top offensive threat. She is in the top-10 in the MIAA with 3.10 kills per set. She has 270 on the season and is hitting .149. 
• The Lions are only hitting .161 as a team which is eighth in the league. Alyssa Diaz is hitting .214 with 132 kills and Morgan Nash has 208 kills while hitting .158.
• Lion opponents are hitting slightly better at .170.
• The Lions have had to piece together the setter position. Makenzie Fa'amausili-Cacoulidis has gotten the call of late and has 330 assists this season. Morgan Nash has also helped out with 420 assists and 4.82 assists per set. 
• Missouri Southern is not getting much off of serves. They have just 92 aces this season and their 1.06 aces per set is eighth out of 11 in the league.