Sept. 24, 2004

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Mizzou returns to Big 12 Conference play on Saturday, as Kansas State visits the Hearnes Center at 7 p.m. The Tigers are 6-3 on the year and 1-1 in the Big 12 heading into the matchup with the Wildcats, who are 7-4 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12. KSU is the defending Big 12 Conference Champion and enters the weekend ranked No. 19 in the USA Today/CSTV Coaches Poll. Missouri stepped out of the conference on Tuesday, recording a 3-0 win over Southeast Missouri State. Last weekend, Mizzou picked up its first Big 12 win of the year with a 3-1 defeat of Baylor. Kansas State is coming off a sweep of Texas A&M on Wednesday. The Tigers will be looking to snap a seven-match losing streak to KSU. The last MU win in the series came in October of 2000. However, both matches of last season's series were five-gamers. Following Saturday's matchup, MU will host Iowa State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the fourth match of its four-match home stand.

SCOUTING KANSAS STATE
Defending Big 12 Champion Kansas State enters the weekend with a 7-4 overall record and is 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference. The Wildcats won four of their first five matches of the season before dropping three of the next four. They have since won their last two. KSU opened up the Big 12 Conference season by falling to Colorado 3-0 in Boulder. On Wednesday, they picked up a sweep over Texas A&M. Lisa Martin leads Kansas State with a .361 hitting percentage and has a team-best 1.52 blocks per game mark. Vali Hejjas leads the team with a 3.54 kills per game average followed by Sandy Werner's 3.00 average. Angie Lastra leads the Wildcats in aces per game (0.68) and digs per game (4.47). Suzie Fritz is in her fourth year as the KSU head coach, compiling a record of 78-26.

SERIES RECORDS
Kansas State holds a 33-26 lead in the all-time series with the Tigers and has won the last seven meetings. KSU is 12-9 in matches played in Columbia. The last Tiger win in the series came in October of 2000, a 3-0 sweep in Columbia. Both matches last season were five-gamers won by the Wildcats.

LAST TIME OUT
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- The Missouri volleyball team recorded its second sweep of the season with a 30-21, 30-7, 30-20 win over Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday at the Hearnes Center. The 30-7 win for Missouri in game two was the largest margin of victory in a game for a MU team since the NCAA went to 30-point games in 2001. Mizzou hit .516 in game two, while holding SEMO to a -.111 hitting percentage. Games one and three were much closer, as the Tigers had to come-from-behind in both games to take the victories. MU had a season-high .454 hitting percentage for the match, while SEMO hit just .070. A trio of Tigers had 11 kills to lead the team. Jessica Vander Kooi had 10 digs to go along with her 11 kills and Shen Danru and Lisa Boyd each recorded 11 kills on the night. Freshman Tatum Ailes had 13 digs to pace Mizzou and Lindsey Hunter had 47 assists to improve her Big 12 leading assists per game mark to 14.00. Mizzou has won the last four meetings with the Otahkians and now holds a 10-3 lead in the all-time series.

CONFERENCE CALL
Missouri is well represented in the Big 12 Conference statistical categories. As a team, MU leads the conference in kills (17.74) and is second in assists (15.97). The Tigers are third in both aces per game (1.88) and digs per game (15.79) and are fourth with a .268 hitting percentage. Individually, Nicole Wilson is leading the Big 12 in hitting percentage with a .462 mark and is third in aces per game with a 0.62 average. Lindsey Hunter has a conference-best 14.00 assists per game average and her 0.41 aces per game are eighth best in the Big 12. Lisa Boyd is third in the conference standings with a .425 hitting percentage. Shen Danru is third in kills per game (4.39) and Tatum Ailes is fifth in digs per game (3.85). In Big 12 Conference matches only, Wilson holds a commanding lead with a .529 hitting percentage and Boyd is third (.420). Jessica Vander Kooi is averaging 4.43 kills per game in conference matches which is third best and Danru's 4.29 average is fifth in the conference. Wilson, Hunter and Ailes are tied for seventh with 0.43 aces per game in Big 12 matches and Hunter leads with 13.86 assists per game.

NIC AT NIGHT
Sophomore Nicole Wilson not only leads the team with a .462 hitting percentage, that mark is also the best in the Big 12 Conference. She has not hit below .320 in any match this season and has hit over .500 four times including a season-high .615 against Southeast Missouri State on Tuesday. Wilson has reached double-digits in kills in all but three matches this season and in each of those three matches, she had nine kills. Another category in which Wilson leads is aces per game. She leads the team and is second in the Big 12 with a 0.62 average. She had a career-high six aces against Arkansas State on Sept. 10 and has had at least three aces in five matches.

RECORD SETTER
In just her third season at Missouri, junior setter Lindsey Hunter has already moved into third on the career assists chart at MU. She has 3,579 assists heading into the match against Kansas State, which is 233 behind second place Cindy Attebery (1990-93). Heather Gerber holds the school record with 4,955 assists from 1997-2000). Hunter set the season assists record in 2002, recording 1,690 as a freshman. Last season she had 1,413 assists, which is fourth all-time. She currently leads the Big 12 Conference in assists per game with a 14.00 average. Hunter has led the Big 12 in that category in each of her two previous seasons.

SHEN SPLINTS
Junior Shen Danru leads the Tigers with a 4.39 kills per game average, which is third best in the Big 12. She has led Mizzou in kills per game since her freshman year in 2002. Danru has moved into fifth place at MU with 1,081 career kills. With 66 more kills she will move into third place. Yvette Buhlig holds the school record with 1,478 career kills form 1988-92. Danru holds second and fourth place in Missouri's season kills list, recording 477 as a freshman in 2002 and 259 as a sophomore last season. In addition, she is the school record holder for aces in a season with 64 in 2002 and her 405 digs last season is second best in Mizzou history.

JVK IS AOK
Last year's Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year Jessica Vander Kooi has a 3.50 kills per game average and a 3.03 digs per game mark heading into the weekend. Vander Kooi has six double-doubles on the year to lead the team. Included in those six double-doubles was a 20-kill, 22-dig performance against Purdue on Sept. 4, both season highs. Along with being named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2003, she was also selected the Central Region Freshman of the Year, making her a finalist for National Freshman of the Year.

LOOKING UP TO THE TIGERS With an average height of 6-0 1/8, the Tigers are the seventh tallest team in the country, according to research done by richkern.com. That average makes the Tigers the third tallest team in the Big 12 Conference. Mizzou has eight players over six feet tall and four that are at least 6-3. At 6-5, Lindsey Noll is the tallest player in MU history. Na Yang, Nicole Wilson and Melissa Allbery are not far behind at 6-3.