Warrensburg, Mo. (Sept. 14, 1999) - Central Missouri State University's volleyball team begins defense of its perennial MIAA title this week with the first of four straight home matches. Coach Peggy Martin's Jennies, who have won all 17 previous titles in conference history, open league play on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the CMSU Multipurpose Building against an improving Southwest Baptist University team.

On Friday night, the Jennies take on Washburn University at 7 p.m., then on Saturday they'll meet Truman State University at 1 p.m. The homestand concludes next Wednesday (Sept. 22) with a 7 p.m. match against Missouri Southern State College.

The Jennies are 7-3 after wins over the University of Alabama-Huntsville and Quincy University in last weekend's CMSU Invitational. Southwest Baptist, in its first season under new coach Cindy Rear, is also 7-3. Washburn is 1-6 (0-2 MIAA) prior to a non-league match with Baker University Wednesday night. Truman is 6-3 (2-0 MIAA) going into Wednesday's home match with Northwest Missouri State University, then plays at SBU on Friday night before meeting the Jennies on Saturday.

The Jennies begin MIAA competition with a string of 33 straight league wins. They have gone 16-0 in the conference each of the last two seasons and won their final league game of 1996. Their last MIAA loss was in five games at home to Washburn on Nov. 15, 1996.

Last weekend's two victories moved Martin's career victory total to 795, as she approaches the 800-win plateau. When she reaches career win number 800, she'll be the first Division II coach to accomplish that feat and only the fourth coach in women's senior-college volleyball history to do so. Andy Banachowski at UCLA and Elaine Michaelis at Brigham Young, both in Division I, and Larry Bock at Division III Juniata (Pa.) are the only other women's college volleyball coaches to record 800 career wins. Like Martin, all three have recorded their wins at one school.