Fort Hays State will be on the road against a ranked team for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 14) when they face No. 10 Pittsburg State. The Lady Tigers are 14-2 on the year and at 6-2 in the MIAA they are sitting in fourth place in the conference standings. The next two games for FHSU are on the road against teams ahead of them in the standings.
Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State have met 41 times since the 1974-75 season, with FHSU winning the first seven meetings between the teams. The Lady Tigers still hold a 22-19 advantage in the series, but they have lost four straight meetings over the past two years. Pittsburg State holds a 7-3 advantage over FHSU since the Tigers joined the MIAA for the 2006-07 season. Two of the Fort Hays State wins came at Gross Memorial Coliseum, but the Lady Tigers' last win over Pitt State was an 83-64 win in Pittsburg on February 26, 2009.
Pittsburg State started the season 14-0 and rising to No. 10 in the most recent Division II Coaches Poll before suffering their first loss of the year on Wednesday at home against Washburn 65-51. Pitt State, who is holding their highest ranking since 1995, has been successful thanks to a full team effort, as evidenced by the fact that the team's three top scorers are all within a point of each other. Larissa Richards and Lizzy Jeronimus are tied for the team lead at 13.5 points per game, followed by Brooke Conley, who is averaging 12.7 points per game. Richards is also one of the conference's top rebounders, averaging 8.9 boards per contest.
Fort Hays State will be facing a ranked team for the third time this season, going 1-1 so far with a win over No. 20 Tarleton State and a loss at home to No. 15 Washburn. Fort Hays State is 4-25 all-time against teams ranked in the top 10, including 0-6 against top 10 teams under
Tony Hobson. All four of those wins came between the 1996-97 and 1998-99 seasons. Fort Hays State has never defeated a top 10 team on the road and the last win over a top 10 team was a 77-67 win over No. 8 Nebraska-Kearney on February 9, 1999.
After recording just one double-double last season, the members of the Lady Tigers this year have combined for eight in the teams first 16 games.
Katelyn Edwards has led the way, getting four of them before Christmas break, but since the team has returned to action they have come from different sources. In last week's loss at Central Missouri,
Kate Lehman had a breakout performance with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while
Traci Keyser added 18 points and 12 boards. Against Missouri Southern on Monday, for the second time in three games, the Lady Tigers had a pair of double-doubles in the same game. Edwards got back into the action with a season-high 24 points and 10 rebounds while Lehman had 13 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
After blocking three shots in each of the last two games, Lehman now has 34 blocked shots for the year, ranking third in the MIAA. That mark also puts her in a tie for 9th place the single-season list for blocked shots. Lehman needs three more blocked shots to move into a tie for seventh and with nine more she will move into the single-season top 5. The school record for blocked shots in a season is 64 by Erica Biel in 2008-09. Lehman has come up huge for the Lady Tigers recently, averaging 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game over the past four games. She has also blocked 11 shots in that span and shot 61.8% (21-of-34) from the field and 66.7% (16-of-24) from the free throw line.
The Pitt State game starts a stretch where FHSU will play five out of their next six games on the road, including games at Emporia State and Washburn, who are both ranked in the top 20. The Lady Tigers visit Emporia State next Wednesday (Jan. 18) at 5:30 p.m. The only home game coming up for FHSU is against Lincoln on Saturday (Jan. 21) at 2:00 p.m.
