Warrensburg, Mo. (Sept. 21, 1999) - Central Missouri State University's volleyball team is about to become true road warriors. Coach Peggy Martin's Jennies will complete a string of six straight home matches Wednesday against MIAA-foe Missouri Southern State College, then begin a stretch of 11 straight matches on the road.

Currently 10-3 overall, ranked 15th in Division II and off to a 3-0 start in search of their 18^th straight MIAA title, the Jennies entertain MSSC (5-7 overall, 2-1 MIAA) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the CMSU Multipurpose Building. After that Central doesn't play at home again until Oct. 22.

Friday night the Jennies play at Northwest Missouri State University, then visit Missouri Western State College on Saturday and Emporia State University next Tuesday. The following weekend CMSU goes to Alaska for two matches each with the University of Alaska-Anchorage and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. After that trip, they'll have MIAA road tests at Southwest Baptist University, Missouri Southern, Pittsburg State University and Truman State University before playing at home again.

Middle hitter Daria McConnell was named AVCA Division II national player of the week for her performance in last week's three matches. The 5-11 senior from Overland Park, Kan., had 24 kills and a .405 hitting percentage against Southwest Baptist, then 18 kills and a .412 hitting percentage against Washburn University and finished the weekend with a CMSU match-record 39 kills to go with a .515 hitting percentage against Truman. The 39 kills ranks second in the NCAA Division II record book for kills in a four-game match. She broke her own record of 31 kills she had set earlier this season against Northwood. For the three matches combined, she averaged 7.36 kills per game and had a .458 hitting percentage. Not surprisingly, McConnell also earned MIAA hitter of the week honors for the second time this season.

With their 3-0 league start, the Jennies have extended their MIAA win streak to 36 in a row. They have gone 16-0 in the league each of the last two seasons after winning their final league game of 1996. Their last MIAA loss was in five games at home to Washburn on Nov. 15, 1996.

Sometime during the 11 straight road matches, possibly as soon as this weekend, Martin will reach the historic 800-career-win total. Last week's three victories moved Martin's career victory total to 798, 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 it. 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 reach 800 career wins. Like Martin, all three have recorded their wins at one school.