University of Missouri
Baylor
No. 16 Tigers Give Up Lead at Baylor
10/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 27, 2006
WACO, Texas - The Mizzou Tiger volleyball squad (14-8, 8-5) lost a tough one in Waco Friday night. Down two games, to none, Baylor (14-10, 3-9) came back on the Tigers, taking a decisive game five, 15-10, after Mizzou held a 9-6 advantage in the final frame. Final game scores were, 30-26, 33-31, 22-30, 23-30, 10-15. Mizzou was led by Jessica Vander Kooi who had 25 kills on the night to lead all scorers, but needed a career-high 76 swings to rack points. Mizzou has now lost four of their last five.
Mizzou was frustrated at the net, scoring only five blocks to Baylor's 16.5, resulting in the Tigers trying to hit around the Baylor front ending in many unforced errors.
Mizzou had won ten matches straight when up two games to none. The last such lost came at Nebraska a year ago.
While Mizzou played well in game one, the team struggled the rest of the way, even having to come back from down 29-26 in game two.
Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) scored 25 kills on 76 attempts on the evening, scoring her fifth match all-time with 20-or-more kills. Freshman Julianna Klein was the Tigers' next scorer, capturing 17 kills. Na Yang and Nicole Wilson followed with 15 and 14 kills, respectively.
Junior Tatum Ailes grabbed 31 digs on the hard-hitting night. Senior Abbie Booth added a season-high 17 digs.
Baylor was led by Nicole LeBlanc who scored on 18 kills.
With the score tied at 12 in game 1, the Tatum Ailes serving-rotation with Vander Kooi, Yang, and Nicole Wilson in the front row exposed Baylor to a five point-scoring run, that gave the Tigers a 17-12 lead. Baylor responded with a Amanda Renz serving four-point serving run to close the gap to one at 17-16. Sideouts ruled the day and Mizzou found itself up only two points at 23-21. Back-to-back Vander Kooi kills made the gap four at 25-21 and was part of a 5-2 Tiger run. At 25-22, Megan Wilson earned a clutch kill following a long rally which kept the Tiger lead at four. Lei Wang used setter dumps on two of the next three points to spread the lead to 28-23. Baylor forced Mizzou to a timeout after scoring three straight to close within two at 28-26. Julianna Klein scored a solo block off Baylor's Desiree Guilliard-Young to grab the final pint of the frame and give the Tigers a 30-26 game victory. In what was a hard-hitting frame, Mizzou outhit the Bears .232-.111. Mizzou's Ailes recorded nine digs in the frame alone while Vander Kooi lead the Tigers with five kills in the stanza. Na Yang helped Mizzou with four kills on an errorless seven attempts in the frame.
Baylor was the ones with control early in game 2, as a four-point run gave the Bears an 8-4 run. Mizzou came back within one at 9-8 with a 4-1 run. BU scored two more to spread the lead again to three at 11-8. Again, an Ailes serving run of four points, which included an ace, was capped by a long rally that resulted in a Yang tip that found the donut for a kill to give Mizzou their first lead of the frame at 12-11 and force a Bear timeout. Out of the stop in play, Mizzou was plagued by their own errors and allowed Baylor a four-point strike with the dangerous Taylor Barnes at serve and went down 15-12. After a Tiger timeout, Mizzou had to fight to tie the score at 19 and had to overcome a few more unforced errors. Within the run, Megan Wilson scored an ace. Mizzou was scared into their final timeout of the stanza when the Bears when on a 4-1 run to spread the lead to three at 23-20.
Mizzou would tie the score to 23-23 thanks to another Ailes serving run. After a Nicole Wilson kill, the score was tied at 25. Baylor seemingly took control, scoring four of the next five to force a 29-25 game point. A serving run by Lei Wang that included an ace helped Mizzou tie the score at 29-29. After a Kelsey Smith kill for Baylor, the Bears held game point No. 4, but a Vander Kooi back-row kill knotted the score again. The Tigers faced game point No. 5 when down 31-30, but another Ailes serving run gave the Tigers the three-straight points needed to win the frame. Despite hitting only .164 in the frame, Mizzou was able to pull of the victory. Mizzou's Yang led the frame with six more kills. In total, the stanza was tied 13 times before the Tigers came up with the victory.
In game three, Baylor struck first and never looked back. Baylor led at 14-9 and quickly spread the lead to 21-14. Baylor was up as much as nine at 29-20. Mizzou attempted another comeback, scoring twice in a row. But, Baylor on game point number three took care of business and won the game 30-22. Baylor was dominate in the frame, hitting .370, while Mizzou struggled with unforced errors and hit at only a .189 clip.
Baylor carried the momentum to game four, jumping to a 15-9 lead that quickly gained to 20-13 and then 26-17. Mizzou forced Baylor to a timeout after scoring three straight, but it wasn't enough as the Bears went on to score three of the next six to close the book 30-23 and force a game five. Baylor's offense was running at clip similar in game four to what Nebraska put on Mizzou two days ago, hitting .474 scoring 20 kills and committing only two hitting errors.
The Bears scored the first two points of game five and led 3-1, but Mizzou fought to tie at 3, then again at 4. A cross-court shot that found the corner by Baylor's Nicole LeBlanc gave BU at 5-4 lead. Mizzou's Nicole Wilson ended a long rally with a slide kill, resulting in a 5-5 tie. LeBlanc then hit into the net from the backrow to give Mizzou the 6-5 lead. Klein had to hit off the block twice the score of a tool-hit resulting in a 7-5 Tiger lead. An ace by Megan Wilson gave Mizzou a 8-5 lead to force a switch-court.
After the court switch, BU's Guillard-Young found the donut for a kill, pulling BU within two at 8-6. Klein used another tool hit off a Baylor double block to give MU a 9-6 lead. Baylor's Katie Sanders used a Tiger overpass to score quickly and put the score at 9-7. Klein next hit the ball just inches long to put Baylor within one at 9-8. A Wang overset began a quick-tempo score by Baylor with Bear setter Barnes taking a quick shot to the Tiger sideline, tying the score at 9. Vander Kooi from the back-row hit into a Baylor double-block, giving Baylor the lead at 10-9. Klein then sent another ball long, forcing a Tiger timeout, down 11-9.
The Tigers were able to take control of their offense of the timeout as Klein scored a kill of the back row to pull MU within one again at 11-10. BU's Sanders scored to put the score at 12-10. LeBlanc found the open spot for BU to spread the lead to 13-10. Deja Sweeney continued the Bears' run with an ace to put the score at 14-10. The Bears blocked Mizzou's final strike to take the game and the come-back match win.
Upon arrival in Columbia, the Tiger squad will not have to travel for another 15 days, as the next road trip will come November 10 at Texas. Mizzou will host Iowa State this upcoming Wednesday before hosting Colorado on November 4.
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