University of Missouri
Kansas State
Tiger Volleyball Drops One To No. 15 K-State
10/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 24, 2007
COLUMBIA, Mo. - After two straight matches against Top 10 teams, Missouri faced yet another ranked team Wednesday night in the Hearnes Center. The Tigers (12-9, 5-7) were swept in their third straight game and fell to the No. 15 Kansas State Wildcats (16-6, 8-4) 23-30, 19-30, 27-30. The Tigers are now 2-13 against the Wildcats when they are ranked.
Mizzou struggled offensively, hitting only .147 throughout the game. The Tigers allowed Kansas State to hit .303 on the night.
"This kind of stuff happens when you're playing the top three teams in the league. Three matches in a row, so you don't get a break," Head Coach Wayne Kreklow said. "I still believe that we can beat them and you can see flashes of that when we're playing. So even against top teams like Kansas State, Texas and Nebraska, there's just no getting around the fact that we're shorthanded. I do think that if we keep playing, we're playing well enough to beat a lot of teams. Maybe we're not playing well enough to beat Top 20 teams, but I still think we're playing well enough to do well against a lot of teams."
Na Yang (Shan Dong, China) led the Tigers with 11 kills and three blocks and Amanda Hantouli (Omaha, Neb.) added nine kills and five blocks. Weiwen Wang (Nanjing, China) had eight kills on the night.
Senior Tatum Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) tallied a co-match-high 20 digs.
Kansas State took an early lead in the first game behind a 6-0 run that gave the Wildcats an 8-4 lead. After trailing 16-10, the Tigers put together a 5-0 run to pull within one but couldn't get any closer as they fell to the Wildcats 30-23. Hantouli led Missouri with five kills on eight attacks and Weiwen Wang had three kills on six attacks.
In game two, Mizzou jumped out to a 4-1 lead and held an 8-5 lead before Kansas State went on a 6-0 run to take a 12-8 lead. The Tigers wouldn't couldn't grab a hold of the lead again and the Wildcats finished the game on an 8-2 run to win game two 30-19. Lei Wang (Shanghai, China) led the Tigers with three kills and two blocks.
The Tigers came out into game three fired up and took a 7-2 lead, forcing a Kansas State timeout. Mizzou couldn't keep the momentum and the Wildcats tied the game at 10 before taking a 19-14 lead. The Tigers fought back to within two behind the six kills of Yang and trailed 23-21. Missouri pulled within one on a block by Hantouli and Megan Wilson and then tied the game at 25 with another block by Hantouli. Kansas State pulled ahead 27-25 and defeated the Tigers 30-27 in game three.
Missouri heads to Lawrence, Kan. to take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday at 3 p.m.
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