University of Missouri
Pepperdine
Tigers Fall to No. 24 Pepperdine
9/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 13, 2008
RENO, Nev. - The Missouri volleyball team (4-4) dropped a three-set, 25-15, 25-23, 25-18, match to No. 24 Pepperdine Saturday morning at Nevada's AT&T Invitational in Reno, Nev. The Tigers will close tournament later in the afternoon with a 5 p.m., pacific, start versus UC-Davis.
Mizzou struggled offensively as sophomore Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) was the Tiger leader with nine kills. Junior setter Lei Wang (Shanghai, China) scored on three aces to go along with a co-team lead three blocks.
Pepperdine (8-0) was led by Lilla Frederick's 12 kills.
The Waves used tough serving in the first portions of the first set to take an early, 12-6 lead, causing Mizzou to call a timeout after an ace. Mizzou fired back with a nice 4-1 run, containing two-consecutive aces by Lei Wang, to put the score to 15-10 and force a Pepperdine timeout. But the Waves serving kept the Tigers off balance offensively. Pepperdine would go on to win the set 25-15 after being flawless offensively, scoring 12 errorless kills on 17 attempts (.706). Weiwen Wang led the Tigers in the first frame with four kills.
Pepperdine jumped to a hefty, 10-3 lead, again spurred by tough serving. But, Mizzou came back with a 6-1 run that included a Megan Wilson ace, and a Wang-Wang double block to cut the deficit to three at 12-9. The Tigers themselves used tough serving and a fluent offense to progress the score to 17-16 before a Wave rotation produced four points from four-straight kills, making the score 21-16. Mizzou went back for another ace and four-straight scores of its own to pull it to 21-20. Although Mizzou played well down the stretch, they weren't able to produce more than a side-out, resulting in the 25-23 set loss.
To start the third, Pepperdine opened with a 9-5 lead before scoring eight straight to mount a nearly insurmountable 17-5 tally. Although would go on a 9-3 run to take the score from 21-9 to 24-18, it wasn't enough as the Waves ended the game on a kill.
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