MIAA Volleyball Championship Semifinals
No. 1 Central Missouri (26-3) vs. No. 4 Nebraska Kearney (25-5)
Friday, Nov. 19 | 6 p.m. | Warrensburg, Mo. (UCM Multipurpose Building)
Scene Setter
• Top-seeded and No. 3-ranked University of Central Missouri Jennies volleyball is scheduled to take on fourth-seeded and 12th-ranked Nebraska Kearney in the semifinals of the MIAA Volleyball Championship Friday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m. inside the UCM Multipurpose Building.
• The Jennies are 26-3 after defeating eighth-seeded Missouri Western, 3-0, in the quarterfinals Tuesday, Nov. 16.
• The other semifinal match, which pits No. 2 seed and fourth-ranked Northwest Missouri and No. 3 seed and fifth-ranked Washburn, will also be played in Warrensburg. It is scheduled for 8:30 Friday night.
• The winners of each semifinal match will move on to the championship match, which will be played Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. inside the Multipurpose Building.
How to Watch
• Live video and live statistics will be available throughout the tournament. Links may be found at www.TheMIAA.com and www.UCMAthletics.com.
Champions!
• With their 3-0 sweep over Newman Nov. 11, the Jennies clinched the 25th MIAA Regular Season Championship in program history and the first title since 2014.
• The title was the sixth under 13th season head coach
Flip Piontek.
Eight Jennies Receive All-MIAA Honors
• Eight University of Central Missouri Jennies volleyball student-athletes received All-MIAA honors for their performances on the volleyball court during the 2021 MIAA conference season, the conference office unveiled Tuesday, Nov. 16.
• Redshirt senior
Audrey Fisher and head coach
Flip Piontek earned the conference's highest honors. Fisher was voted the MIAA Player of the Year while Piontek garnered MIAA Coach of the Year accolades.
• Fisher,
Hannah Engelken,
Ally Offerdahl,
Sydney Lierz and
Kersti Nix all were named First Team All-MIAA while
Rylie Barnum and
Hannah VanBuskirk received Second Team All-MIAA honors, and
Aubree Bell was received Honorable Mention All-MIAA honors.
• The Jennies tied Washburn for the most All-MIAA honors with eight.
Last Time Out
• The road to the MIAA Volleyball Championship will run through Warrensburg as No. 3-ranked and top-seeded Jennies volleyball broke out the brooms in a 3-0 sweep of the Missouri Western Griffons in the MIAA tournament quarterfinals Tuesday, Nov. 16, inside the Multipurpose Building. The set scores were 25-20, 25-19 and 25-20.
•
Audrey Fisher, who was voted the MIAA Player of the Year earlier in the day Tuesday, posted a match-best 13 kills on 26 attempts with no errors for a sizzling .500 attack percentage and added a match-high five blocks, while
Kersti Nix also reached double-figure kills with 10 on 23 swings with just two miscues for .348 hitting.
•
Ally Offerdahl surpassed 1,000 assists for a season for the third time in her storied UCM career after dishing out a match-high 34 assists and added a team-best two service aces.
•
Rylie Barnum compiled a match-best 23 digs, and
Arley Anderson set a new career-high with 16 digs.
• Central Missouri outhit Missouri Western (14-16) in the match, .212 to .142, and tallied advantages in kills (44-37), aces (5-3), blocks (8-5) and assists (39-37), while the Griffons had a 77-74 edge in digs.
Jennies in the MIAA Statistics
• Entering the weekend, the Jennies lead the MIAA in blocks (2.37 per set), rank second in opponent hitting percentage (.141) and digs (19.14 per set), and fourth in hitting percentage (.254), assists (12.95 per set), kills (14.18 per set) and service aces (1.55 per set).
• Individually,
Hannah Engelken leads the MIAA in blocks, averaging 1.18 blocks per set with 122 total blocks and seventh in hitting percentage at .331, while
Ally Offerdahl is fifth in assists with 9.80 assists per set on 1,009 total assists.
Audrey Fisher is fourth in hitting percentage at .372, fifth in blocks at 0.98 per set with 101 total blocks, and seventh in kills with 3.22 per set, and
Kersti Nix is 10th in hitting percentage at .294 and 11th in kills with 2.95 per set.
Rylie Barnum is fourth in digs with 547 digs and 5.73 digs per set, and
Aubree Bell is 10th in service aces with 0.30 per set and 27 total service aces.
Individual Milestones
•
Ally Offerdahl is sixth in program history in career assists with 4,955 and fourth in career assists per set at 10.70 entering the weekend.
• In the latest NCAA Division II national statistics, Offerdahl is second in the Division II active career leaders assists list with her 4,955 career assists.
• Fisher is currently seventh in career hitting percentage at .347 in 464 career sets played. She's just four points shy of moving up to sixth.
• Offerdahl is 45 assists shy of becoming the sixth Jenny in program history to reach the 5,000 career assists mark.
.300 or Better
• Under Coach Piontek, Central Missouri 126-0 when they hit at least .300. While it hasn't happened often under Piontek, UCM is just 3-14 when surrendering a .300 attack percentage to their opponent. The Jennies have hit .300 or better in five matches this season.
National Recognition: Engelken Named Sports Imports/AVCA Division II National Player of the Week
• Redshirt junior middle blocker
Hannah Engelken was selected the Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division II National Player of the Week for her performance on the volleyball court during the week of Oct. 25-31, the organization announced Tuesday, Nov. 2.
• Engelken is the ninth Jennies volleyball student-athlete to garner the honor and the first since Kasey Hohlen in 2017.
• Jennies Volleyball AVCA National Players of the Week:
1999: Daria McConnell: Sept. 13-19 and Sept. 27-Oct. 3; 2005: Kaci Young: Aug. 25-30; Becky Haug: Oct. 12-18; 2014: Haley Thompson: Sept. 2-8; Carly Sojka: Sept. 30-Oct. 6; 2015: Carly Sojka: Sept. 29-Oct. 5; 2017: Kasey Hohlen: Oct. 17-23; 2021:
Hannah Engelken: Oct. 25-31
UCM in the Polls
• The Jennies are ranked No. 3 in the latest AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll released Nov. 15. Northwest Missouri is No. 4, while Washburn is No. 5 and Nebraska Kearney is No. 12, rounding out the MIAA programs in the poll.
• In the most recent NCAA-II Central Region Rankings, UCM remained number one. Northwest Missouri is No. 3, Washburn is No. 4 and Nebraska Kearney in No. 6, wrapping up the MIAA teams in the rankings.
• In the MIAA preseason poll, the Jens were picked to finish fourth behind Nebraska-Kearney, Washburn and Northwest Missouri. They finished with 75 points.
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