Oct. 26, 2004

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Mizzou and Texas A&M enter Wednesday's match with identical 8-3 records in Big 12 Conference play. They are tied for third in the conference standings with MU currently holding the tie-breaker as it defeated the Aggies 3-1 earlier in the season. The Tigers are 13-5 overall on the year, while Texas A&M enters with a 12-5 record. In the earlier meeting this season, Mizzou defeated the Aggies 30-18, 30-22, 27-30, 30-21. The Tigers were not ranked at that point and A&M was No. 15, just as it is this week. MU has won three in a row, seven of its last eight and nine of its last 11 matches. On Saturday, the Tigers defeated Colorado 3-0, for their second sweep of the Buffaloes this season. The Aggies recorded a five-game win over Texas Tech on Saturday in Lubbock. Following Wednesday's trip to College Station, Mizzou will take Saturday off before hosting Kansas at the Hearnes Center at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3.

SCOUTING TEXAS A&M
The Aggies are 12-5 on the season and 8-3 in the Big 12 Conference, tied with Mizzou for third in the league standings. Texas A&M has won four in a row and six of its last seven. It's only loss during that stretch came to the Tigers on Oct. 1. On Saturday, it recorded a five-game win over Texas Tech in Lubbock. The Aggies are second in the Big 12 Conference with 3.38 blocks per game and have two players, Melissa Munsch and Kendra Felder, in the top 10 in the conference in blocks per game. Munsch is third in the Big 12 with 1.75 blocks per game and is averaging 3.75 kills and 3.38 digs per game and has a .305 hitting percentage. Felder is 10th with a 1.22 blocks per game mark and has a 2.35 kills per game average. Laura Jones leads A&M with 4.65 kills per game, which is third best in the Big 12 Conference.

SERIES RECORDS
Texas A&M leads the series with Mizzou 16-4 and is 8-0 at home as the Tigers will be looking for their first ever win in College Station. Earlier this month, the Tigers knocked off the Aggies 3-1 in front of a record crowd at the Hearnes Center.

LAST TIME OUT
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- The Mizzou Volleyball team pushed its winning streak to three with a 3-0 (30-21, 30-24, 30-24) win over Colorado on Saturday at the Hearnes Center. MU has now won seven of its last eight matches. With the win, Missouri sweeps the season series with Colorado for the second time in the last three years. The Tigers have won five of the last six meeting with CU. The Tigers jumped out to an 8-1 lead to open game one and went on to a 30-21 lead to take a 1-0 lead in the match. In the game Mizzou out-hit the Buffaloes .400-.171. Seven different Tigers recorded digs in the first game and six had at least one block, while Colorado did not have a block in game one. Nicole Wilson had six kills and Jessica Vander Kooi added five in the opening game to lead the Tigers. Game two was tied at 18, when the Tigers scored six straight points and took a 2-0 lead into the intermission with a 30-24 win. They topped their hitting percentage of .400 in game one with a .500 mark in the second game. Wilson added six more kills and Lisa Boyd had five in game two. After the second game, every Tiger that had played had recorded a dig and all but two had a block. Mizzou opened game three on a 12-4 run before Colorado scored three straight points to cut the lead to five. The Tigers would put together another run, building a lead of as much as ten on its way to a 30-24 win. Wilson had a career-high 19 kills to lead the Tigers. She hit .562 and was one of five Tigers to hit above .300 as MU hit .456 for the match, its best ever hitting percentage in a Big 12 Conference match.

GOING NATIONAL
Heading into the week, Mizzou was tied for fourth in the nation in kills per game with a 17.68 kills per game average. The Tigers are also sixth in assists per game (16.02) and 11th with a .287 hitting percentage. Individually, Lindsey Hunter is fourth in assists per game (14.20), while Lisa Boyd is 16th (.395) and Nicole Wilson is 17th (.394) in hitting percentage.

HITTING THEIR MARK
The Tigers are second in the Big 12 Conference with a .287 hitting percentage on the season. Lisa Boyd has taken over the lead in the Big 12 with a .395 hitting percentage. Boyd has hit above .300 thirteen times this season and has had four matches where she hit at least .500, including two .800 hitting percentages. Nicole Wilson is a close second to Boyd in the conference with a .394 hitting percentage. Wilson has hit over .300 in all but four matches this season and has hit over .500 five times, with a season-high .615 against SMS.

PULLING RANK
The Tigers defeated their third ranked opponent of the year on Oct. 9 with a 3-1 win over No. 15 Texas A&M. The previous Saturday, MU swept No. 25 Colorado in Boulder. Mizzou's first win over a ranked team came in the season opener, when it defeated then-No. 23 Wisconsin 3-1 in Madison, Wis. The win over Colorado and Wisconsin, each came on the opponent's home court.

CENTURY MARK
With Mizzou's win over Kansas on Oct. 16, Susan Kreklow recorded her 100th win as the Tigers' head coach. Since arriving at Missouri in 2000, Susan and Wayne Kreklow have led the Tigers to a 102-42 record and four-consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. Earlier this season, Kreklow recorded her 600th career win and currently has a record of 611-152, good for an .801 winning percentage.

CONFERENCE CALL
Missouri is well represented in the Big 12 Conference statistical categories. As a team, MU leads the conference in both assists per game (16.02) and kills per game (17.68). The Tigers are second with a .287 hitting percentage and are third in digs per game (16.18). Individually, MU holds the top two spots in hitting percentage as Lisa Boyd leads the Big 12 with a .395 hitting percentage followed by Nicole Wilson, who is a close second with a .394 mark. Wilson is also in third in aces per game with an average of 0.45. Lindsey Hunter has a conference-best 14.20 assists per game average. Shen Danru is eighth in kills per game (4.00), Jessica Vander Kooi is 10th (3.97) and Tatum Ailes is third in digs per game (4.18). In Big 12 matches only MU leads in hitting percentage (.301) and assists per game (15.84) and is second in kills per game (17.45).

SWEEPING UP
With its 3-0 win over Oklahoma on Oct. 6, Missouri swept its third straight opponent. It was the first time MU had swept three-consecutive matches since October of 2002. The streak began on Sept. 29, with a three-game victory over Iowa State at home. Since then, Mizzou has had back-to-back road sweeps, defeating Colorado on Oct. 2 and Oklahoma on Oct. 6.

SHEN SPLINTS
Junior Shen Danru leads the Tigers with a 4.00 kills per game average, which is eighth best in the Big 12. She has led Mizzou in kills per game since her freshman year in 2002. Danru has moved into third place at MU with 1,192 career kills. Yvette Buhlig holds the school record with 1,478 career kills form 1988-92. Mizzou's first-ever All-American, Christi Myers, is second with 1,476 kills from 1999-2002. Danru is also in the top ten in career digs as a Tiger, as her 943 digs place her eighth in school history. She holds second and fourth place on 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.

A RECORD SETTER
In just her third season at Missouri, junior setter Lindsey Hunter has already moved into second place on the career assists chart at MU. She has 4,026 assists heading into Wednesday. 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 and is fourth in the nation in assists per game with a 14.10 average. Hunter has led the Big 12 in that category in each of her two previous seasons.

UP NEXT
Mizzou is off this weekend, but will return to action next Wednesday, Nov. 3 as Kansas visits the Hearnes Center at 7 p.m. The Tigers then have back-to-back road matches at Texas Tech (Nov. 6) and Iowa State (Nov. 10).