University of Missouri
Florida
Volleyball Falls to No. 17 Florida in Opening Round
12/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2011
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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The Mizzou volleyball team saw its season come to an end on Friday night (Dec. 2) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as it fell to No. 17 Florida, 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 20-25, 16-25), at the McLeod Center. The Tigers, who entered the tournament as the youngest team in the field of 64, finish the year 21-13. The NCAA Tournament appearance was Mizzou's 10th in 12 seasons under the direction of Wayne and Susan Kreklow.
"Obviously, we are disappointed," head coach Wayne Kreklow. "I felt like at times we played well but it is just tough for a young group of kids against a team that is that good. They don't have a lot of weaknesses; they are big, athletic, and have a lot experience. They made it tough for a group of young kids tonight. I saw glimpses of really good volleyball tonight but out margin for error is just pretty small right now. When we were out of system, we just couldn't force them into any errors; that was the story of the match."
A pair of single season records were set in the match as sophomore Lisa Henning (Blue Springs, Mo.) tallied 16 kills in the loss, moving her season total to 523, gaining sole possession of first place, passing Na Yang who had 522 in 2007. Freshman Whitney Little (Keller, Texas) also posted five blocks in the match, giving her 138 on the season, tying her with former Tiger All-American Christi Myers who had the same amount in 2000.
Sophomore setter Molly Kreklow (Delano, Minn.) just missed her second 20-20 effort of the season as she spread 32 assists while collecting a team-high 17 digs. Senior Brittney Brimmage (East St. Louis, Ill.) finished with eight kills on .217 hitting while classmate Priscilla Armendariz (Blue Springs, Mo.) collected 13 digs in the loss, which proves to be the last for the pair of Tiger seniors.
The rest of the Tiger offense struggled as they hit .071 as a unit. Freshman Katie O'Brien (Dallas, Texas) pitched in five kills but had four errors and classmate Emily Wilson (Omaha, Neb.) pitched in four kills but also had four errors. Little finished the match with three kills and five attack errors. Defensively, the Tigers played pretty well, led by Kreklow's 17 digs. Freshman Sarah Meister (San Diego, Calif.) matched her career-best with 14 digs in the match while classmate Jade Hayes (Ozark, Mo.) pulled in nine digs.
Mizzou ran out to a quick 6-1 lead over the Gators in the first set thanks in large part to its defense that tallied plenty of digs and a huge solo block from Little. An ace from Meister forced the first timeout of the match from Florida. Mizzou continued to tack on points out of the timeout, building a 14-6 lead, before allowing Florida to go on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to 15-10, forcing a Kreklow timeout.
The Tigers settled down from there and regained their composure as they continued to go point-for-point with the Gators before building a 22-18 lead after kill off a right-side slide from Little, forcing Florida to use its final timeout. The Gators then ran off three of the next four points to cut into the lead at 23-21, forcing Wayne Kreklow to use his final timeout. Things stayed tight from there, but a nice transition kill from Henning clinched the first for the Tigers, 25-23.
Brimmage led Mizzou with five kills on seven attacks while Henning pitched in three more kills. The Tigers were actually out-killed, out-dug, out-hit and out-blocked in the first but took advantage of 11 total Gator errors in the set. Mizzou had just eight total errors in the first set.
The second set was back and forth in the beginning stages until a service ace from O'Brien gave the Tigers a 7-6 lead. But Florida, behind the tough service of All-American Kelly Murphy, took five of the next six points to build an 11-8 lead. Florida extended its lead to 15-10 as it continued to serve tough, but Mizzou played pretty good defense in that span, making several highlight-reel digs. From that point, Florida began to run away with the second set as it built an 18-10 lead. The Tigers mounted a 4-0 run to get back into things, but the Gator attack was too much as they claimed the second frame 25-16, sending the teams to the intermission knotted at 1-1.
Coming out of intermission, Florida ran out to a 4-0 lead in the third set before Mizzou rallied to tie the score at 9-9 on a Brimmage kill before eventually gaining the lead at 14-13 on a two-hit violation by the Gators. That forced a UF timeout and things stayed very close but Mizzou held the lead until an attack error from Henning gave Florida the lead back at 19-18. The Tigers tied the set at 19 before Florida took the next two points, forcing Kreklow to use his final timeout. Out of the timeout, Florida got a kill from Kristy Jaeckel and then an ace from libero Taylor Unroe extended the advantage to 23-19 and the Gators put the set away at 25-20.
Florida began the fourth set just like it did the third, building a quick 4-1 lead as Mizzou continued to struggle following the late stages for the third set. The struggles continued for the Tigers as Florida built a 10-2 lead as Florida ran away with the fourth, 25-16, clinching the match.
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