Warrensburg, Mo. (Oct. 11, 2000) -- After starting the second half of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association volleyball season with a three-game win at Southwest Baptist University Tuesday night, the Central Missouri State University Jennies now face their toughest stretch of MIAA matches.

Following a home match Friday (Oct. 13) at 7 p.m. against Missouri Southern State College, coach Peggy Martin's Jennies will play three straight on the road at Truman State University on Oct. 18, Northwest Missouri State University on Oct. 20 and Missouri Western State College on Oct. 21.

Tuesday night's win over Southwest Baptist moved the Jennies into a first-place tie with Truman. The Bulldogs, the only conference team to beat CMSU last season, have only a non-league home match with Quincy University Friday night prior to next Wednesday night's showdown in Kirksville, Mo. Truman is 21-2, 9-0 in the MIAA and ranked 18th in Division II.

The Jennies are 19-4, 9-0 in the MIAA and ranked 22nd in Division II. They are 71-2 in league matches dating back through the 1996 season. Their current conference home-match winning streak stands at 29 and dates back to 1996, when Washburn University handed them their only MIAA loss of the campaign in five games.

The Jennies won this season's first meeting with Missouri Southern in three straight games on Sept. 16 in Joplin. The Lady Lions are 5-13 overall, 2-8 in the conference, after losing to Washburn in three games Wednesday night.

The current Jennies' squad won't be playing, but there will be volleyball at the CMSU Multipurpose Building Saturday. The weekend has been designed to recognize the 25 years of Jennies' volleyball under Martin, who is NCAA Division II's winningest volleyball coach.

Saturday morning at 11 a.m. two squads of former Jennies' players will meet in an exhibition match, then a luncheon and "roast" of Martin will take place at 1 p.m. in the University Union.

At last weekend's Central Missouri State Challenge, the Jennies suffered back-to-back setbacks to the University of Alabama-Huntsville and Florida Southern College before rebounding with a win over Drury University. The double losses on Friday night marked the first time since Sept. 12, 1992, that they had lost consecutive matches on the same date on their home court. Senior Rhea Griffin and freshman Trudy Carter were the Jennies' representatives on the all-tournament team for the Central Missouri State Challenge.