Jennies Volleyball Home For Senior Night

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Nov. 14, 2019) - It's the final week of the regular season for Jennies Volleyball. UCM concludes with a pair of home games Friday and Saturday, including Senior Night Friday to honor their 2019 senior class.

Opponents
Emporia State Hornets (7-19, 3-15 MIAA)
Washburn Ichabods (24-2, 16-2 MIAA)

Where
Warrensburg, Mo. - UCM Multipurpose Building

When
Friday, Nov. 15 - 6 p.m. vs. Emporia State
Saturday, Nov. 16 - 2 p.m. vs. Washburn

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 the final time in 2019 this weekend as they take on Emporia State and Washburn
• The Jennies went 2-0 last week as they wrapped up a four-match road trip with wins at Central Oklahoma and Newman.
• Central Missouri has been ranked in the AVCA top-10 for the last five weeks. This week they sit 10th.

Senior Night
• Following Friday night's match, the Jennies will honor their two seniors with a special on court ceremony. This year's senior class features Rylee Neigenfind and Abby Skrastins. 

Story Lines
• This weekend is Senior Weekend for the Jennies. They will hold a special on-court recognition following their match Friday against Emporia State. This year's seniors are Rylee Neigenfind and Abby Skrastins. 
• Central Missouri has more than 50 all-time wins against both Emporia State and Washburn. They are 54-7 all-time against the Hornets and 53-18 against Washburn following their matches earlier in the season.
• The Jennies last loss to Emporia State came at home in October of 2014. They swept the Hornets in 2018 and won on the road in October. 
• UCM and Washburn have had a heated rivalry of late, with the two teams splitting the last 16 matches.

Quick Hits
Last Time Out
• Central Missouri went 2-0 last week to conclude a four match road trip. They defeated Central Oklahoma 3-1 and Newman 3-0 behind double-digit kill efforts from Audrey Fisher. 

Previously Against Emporia State/Washburn
• These teams met nearly one month ago with the Jennies sweeping the Hornets 3-0. Sydney Lierz hit .407 from the outside with 12 kills and Aubree Bell picked up nine and 20 digs. Against Washburn, the teams were tied at one after two sets, but the Ichabods took sets three and four for the win. Four Jens recorded 10 kills each and Ally Offerdahl passed out 41assists with eight digs.

UCM in the Polls
• In the American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Poll, the Jennies remained ranked 10th It is their 435th time ranked in the top-25, by far the most in Division II, and fifth straight week in the top-10.
• The second NCAA Central Region rankings came out this week. The Jennies sit seventh once again. The top-8 teams make the NCAA Postseason Tournament with the winners of the NCAA, Northern Sun and Great American Tournaments all receiving an automatic bid. 
• 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 now in the UCM all-time top-10 in assists with 3,696. Offerdahl needs 224 more to get into ninth place. She is also 18 digs away from 1,000.
• Aubree Bell is nearing 600 kills needing 21 more.
• Hannah VanBuskirk is 7 blocks away from 100 and 21 kills away from 600.
• Rylee Neigenfind needs four more blocks for 150. 
• Sydney Lierz is 19 kills shy of 200.

.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 119-0 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 better than .300 in their last match on the road at Newman

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 haven't been much different in 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 3-7 this season against ranked opponents. This week the Jennies face No. 3 Washburn. 

MIAA Leaders
• In MIAA only games, the Jennies have the best attack percentage in the league at .251. They are also second in kills and assists. 
• Audrey Fisher is once again leading the league in hitting percentage at .367. She is also ninth in the league in service aces with 0.28 aces per set. 
• Hannah Engelken also sees her name twice in the top-10. She is fifth in the league in blocks per set with 0.90. Her .274 attack percentage is also in the top-20 at 13th.
• Sydney Lierz ranks 11th with 2.82 kills per set overall and fifth in MIAA games with 3.25. 
• In MIAA games, Ally Offerdahl's 11.17 assists per set are second in the league. 
• Abby Skarstins is fourth in digs in conference games with 5.60 and overall with 5.27. 

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
Emporia State Hornets (7-19, 3-15 MIAA)
• Emporia State is playing .500 over their last four matches with wins over Newman and Missouri Southern.
• The Hornets are led by Yuchen Du who can (and has) done a little bit of everything. She is playing more outside this season after seeing plenty of time at setter in 2018. She is seventh in the MIAA in kills per set in 2019 with 3.00 and has 77 assists and 168 digs. Last season, Du had five triple-doubles.
• The Hornets are hitting .151, next to last in the MIAA this season. However Aliyah Bernard is fifth individually hitting .313 in 82 sets with 167 kills and just 41 errors. She is also 13th in the league in blocks with 0.70 per set.
• Two Hornets are in the MIAA top-20 in digs per set. Rylie Fornelli leads the team with 320 and has 4.05 in 79 sets. Shelby Innes is 17th in the MIAA with 299 in 94 sets and 3.18 digs per set.
• The primary setter this season has been Emma Dixon. She averages 7.29 assists per set. Riley Bernskoetter has also seen time with 3.39 assists per set in 44 sets played.
• The Hornets have had issues on the serve, landing just 91 aces while allowing 121. Du, Innes and Shelby Ebert all have 14 aces to lead the team.
• Emporia State opponents are hitting .217 this season with 1,262 kills. 
Player to Watch
Yuchen Du (6-0 - S/OH - Jr. - Beijing, China) - 17 double-figure kill matches

Washburn Ichabods (24-2, 16-2 MIAA)
• This season, Washburn has two losses to Nebraska-Kearney and zero against everybody else. The Ichabods are 24-2 and 16-2 in the MIAA. Their only two losses, both sweeps against the Lopers
• Noone in the MIAA this season has more kills than Washburn. They average 14.42 kills per set. Their also the best at stopping opponent kills, allowing just 10.13 kills per set.
• Individually, Genna Berg, two-time MIAA Player of the Week, leads the team with 320 kills. her 3.72 kills per set rank second in the MIAA. Berg also plays a hand on defense with 271 digs, second most on the team and 50 blocks.
• The Ichabods have two others in the MIAA top-20 in kills pet set: Allison Maxwell is 9th (2.90) and Erica Montgomery is 16th (2.67). Kelsey Gordon's 2.40 is just outside the top-20. 
• The offense runs through setter Allison Sadler. She is second in the MIAA in assists per set with 11.00. Sadler also leads the team with 33 service aces.
• Kelsey Gordon and Allison Maxwell do the most damage up the middle. They both have more than 70 blocks this season with Gordon at 0.93 and Maxwell at 0.87 per set.
• Faith Rottinghaus is third in the league in digs with 5.43 digs per set. She has 11 double-figure dig matches this season, including 26 when the Jennies played in Topeka. 
Player to Watch
Genna Berg (5-9 - OH - Jr. - Blue Springs, Mo.) - 3.72 kills per set, .278 attack %, 10+ kills in 13 of last 16 matches