Nov. 2, 2004

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Mizzou and Kansas will meet in a Border Showdown match-up at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Tigers are 13-6 on the season and 8-4 in the Big 12 Conference, which places them in a tie for fourth in the conference standings. KU enters Wednesday's match 13-8 on the year and is 4-8 in the Big 12. The Jayhawks are coming off a loss to Kansas State on Saturday, but have won three of their last five. In the first meeting of the year, Missouri took a five-game win over the Jayhawks in Lawrence. It was the fourth-consecutive match in which the two teams needed five games to decide a winner. The win earned MU 1.5 in the Border Showdown series. Entering Wednesday, the year-long, all-sport series is tied at four. Wednesday's match will be worth another 1.5 points. Next up for the Tigers is a trip to Lubbock, Texas to take on Texas Tech on Saturday. Missouri then travels to Iowa State next Wednesday before returning home to take on Texas on Sunday, Nov. 14.

SCOUTING KANSAS
After opening the season with eight straight wins, the Jayhawks have gone 5-8 in their last 13 matches and are 13-8 on the season and 4-8 in the Big 12 Conference. KU is coming off a three-game loss to Kansas State on Saturday in Manhattan, Kan. Josi Lima, a All-Region selection in 2003 and two-time All-Big 12 First Team member, leads KU with a 3.50 kills per game average to go along with a .257 hitting percentage, a 2.28 digs per game average and a 0.92 blocks per game average. Two-time All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection Ashley Michaels is averaging 3.07 kills per game and 1.50 blocks per game, which is sixth best in the Big 12. Ray Bechard is in his seventh year as the Kansas head coach, compiling a record of 117-89. In his 20th season overall as a head coach, he has a record of 833-149.

THE MU-KU SERIES
Mizzou leads the all-time series with the Jayhawks 39-31 and has won four of the last five matchups. MU has won seven of the last nine against Kansas. Earlier this season, the Tigers picked up a 3-2 (27-30, 30-25, 30-21, 26-30, 15-7) in Lawrence. It was the fourth-consecutive match between KU and MU to go five games.

LAST TIME OUT
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Mizzou had its three-match winning streak snapped as Texas A&M defeated Missouri 3-1 (30-23, 30-28, 25-30, 30-26) in College Station, Texas last Wednesday. The two teams entered the match in a tie for third place. With the win, Texas A&M (13-5, 9-3 Big 12) now stands alone in third. Missouri (12-6, 8-4) is in fourth, a half a game ahead of Kansas State. Shen Danru led the Tigers with 17 kills and added 16 digs. Three others had double-digit kills as Lindsey Noll followed Danru with 13 and Nicole Wilson and Jessica Vander Kooi each had 11. Abbie Booth had a team-high 19 digs followed by Danru's 16 and Vander Kooi who had 15. Tied at eight in the opening game, Texas A&M took the lead with a 4-0 run and would later put together a 5-0 run to take control of the game. The Aggies to the advantage in the match with the 30-23 win in game one. The Tigers built a lead in game two, holding a 26-22 advantage late in the game. However, the Aggies would score four straight points to pull into a tie. The teams would trade the next three points before Texas A&M scored the final three points of the game to take the 30-28 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match at the intermission. In game three, it was Missouri once again taking a lead, this time building a lead of as much as six at 20-14. The Tigers would make it an eight-point game at 28-20 before the Aggies put together a 5-0 run to cut the lead to three. But Mizzou would respond by scoring the next two points and taking the 30-25 win and forcing the match to a fourth game. The Aggies led by five at 21-16 in the fourth game when MU rallied with a 5-1 run to cut the A&M lead to one. That would be as close as the Tigers would get as Texas A&M held on for the 30-26 win to close out the match.

BORDER SHOWDOWN
The Border Showdown series, an all-sport year-long series in which each competition between Missouri and Kansas is worth points, will continue with Wednesday's matchup. The year-long series is currently tied at four heading into Wednesday. Mizzou earned 1.5 points with its win over KU on Oct. 16 and Wednesday's match is worth another 1.5 points. MU won the competition in 2002-03, the inaugural season, by a dominating 32.0-8.5 score. Last year, the Jayhawks took the 21.5-18.5 victory.

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 seventh in assists per game (16.06) and 15th with a .282 hitting percentage. Individually, Lindsey Hunter is fourth in assists per game (14.26), while Nicole Wilson is 17th in hitting percentage (.393) and Lisa Boyd is 22nd in hitting percentage (.388).

BOOTH DIGS IT
Sophomore Abbie Booth set a new career high with 19 digs to lead MU against Texas A&M last Wednesday. Since the Tigers' match against Iowa State, Booth has been a regular in the lineup. She has reached double digits in digs three times including 13 in Mizzou's first meeting with Kansas earlier this season. For the season, Booth is averaging 2.40 digs per game and has a 2.47 digs per game average in Big 12 matches.

HITTING THEIR MARK
The Tigers are third in the Big 12 Conference with a .282 hitting percentage on the season. Nicole Wilson and Lisa Boyd hold the top two spots in the conference standings, as Wilson is first with a .393 mark and Boyd is next with a .388 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. 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.

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 102-43 record and four-consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. Earlier this season, Kreklow recorded her 600th career win and currently has a record of 611-153, good for an .800 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 (16.06) and kills per game (17.68). The Tigers are third with a .282 hitting percentage and are third in digs per game (16.25). Individually, MU holds the top two spots in hitting percentage as Nicole Wilson has a conference leading .393 percentage and Boyd is second with a .388 mark. Wilson is also in fourth in aces per game with an average of 0.43. Lindsey Hunter has a conference-best 14.26 assists per game average. Shen Danru is eighth in kills per game (4.01), Jessica Vander Kooi is 10th in kills per game (3.90) and Tatum Ailes is fifth in digs per game (4.03).

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.

UP NEXT
Mizzou will return to the road for back-to-back road matches starting at Texas Tech at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The Tigers then travel to Ames, Iowa to face Iowa State next Wednesday before returning home to face Texas on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 1 p.m.