Sept. 28, 2004

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Mizzou will face Iowa State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to close out a four-match home stand. The Tigers have won the last 14 meetings against Iowa State with the last Cyclone victory in the series coming in November of 1996. Missouri is 6-4 on the season and 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference. It is coming off a loss to No. 19 Kansas State on Saturday. Iowa State is 7-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12. After winning six of its first seven matches of the year, ISU has dropped three of the last four. Last season, MU swept the Cyclones twice and during the Tigers 14-match winning streak over ISU, 11 of those matches have been three-game sweeps. Following Wednesday's match, MU will start a stretch where it will play four of its next five on the road, beginning with Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, Colo. The Tigers are on the road to face Oklahoma on Oct. 6, then return home to take on Texas A&M before traveling to Texas and Kansas.

SCOUTING IOWA STATE
Iowa State is 7-4 on the season and 1-3 in the Big 12 Conference heading into Wednesday's match. The Cyclones opened the season with four straight wins and won six of their first seven. Since then, they have lost three of four matches, all in the Big 12 Conference. ISU is coming off a four-game loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. As a team, Iowa State averages 17.85 digs per game, second best in the Big 12. Two Cyclone players average over four digs a game led by Katie Churm (4.37) and Brittany Dalager (4.07). Katie Jensen leads the Cyclones with a 2.95 kills per game mark. Linda Crum is in her sixth season as the head coach of Iowa State, compiling a record of 38-117. She is 145-206 in 12 total seasons as a head coach. Last year, ISU was 12-19 overall and 4-16 in the Big 12 Conference, finishing eighth in the conference standings.

SERIES RECORDS
Mizzou leads the all-time series with Iowa State 28-26 and has won the last 14 matches with the Cyclones. During the Tigers' 14-match winning streak, 11 of those victories have been three-game sweeps. The two teams have split the 22 matches played in Columbia

LAST TIME OUT
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- The Mizzou volleyball team fell to Kansas State 3-0 (30-26, 35-33, 30-24) on Saturday at the Hearnes Center. The Tigers fell behind early in the opening game, trailing by 12 at 15-3 before fighting back and cutting the Kansas State lead to two at 26-24. That would be as close as Mizzou would get as KSU took the 30-26 win and a 1-0 lead in the match. The teams switched roles in game two, as MU built a 23-17 before the Wildcats rallied, scoring nine of the next 11 points. Kansas State held game point at 29-27, but the Tigers came back, tying the score at 29. Mizzou would fight off two more KSU game points before KSU put the game on its fifth game point. Kansas State took the lead in game three and held it, taking a 30-24 win and a 3-0 sweep of the match. Jessica Vander Kooi led the Tigers in both kills with 19 and digs with 15. Shen Danru added 10 kills and Tatum Ailes had 14 digs. Lindsey Hunter had 40 assists on the night.

CONFERENCE CALL
Missouri is well represented in the Big 12 Conference statistical categories. As a team, MU leads the conference in both kills (17.76) and assists (15.97). The Tigers are third both in hitting percentage (.263) and digs (15.89) and fourth in aces (1.78). Individually, Nicole Wilson is leading the Big 12 in hitting percentage with a .429 mark and is third in aces per game with a 0.57 average. Lindsey Hunter has a conference-best 13.95 assists per game average and her 0.41 aces per game are eighth best in the Big 12. Lisa Boyd is fourth in the conference standings with a .387 hitting percentage. Shen Danru is fourth in kills per game (4.31) and Tatum Ailes is seventh in digs per game (3.92).

NIC AT NIGHT
Sophomore Nicole Wilson not only leads the team with a .429 hitting percentage, that mark is also the best in the Big 12 Conference. She has hit below .300 just once this season and has hit over .500 four times including a season-high .615 against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 21. Wilson has reached double-digits in kills in all but four matches this season and has had nine kills in three of the four single digit kill outings. Another category in which Wilson leads is aces per game. She leads the team and is third in the Big 12 with a 0.57 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 3,619 assists heading into the match against Iowa State, which is 193 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 13.95 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 4.31 kills per game average, which is fourth 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 1,091 career kills. With 56 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.

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.