Nov. 26, 2004

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The regular season will conclude on Saturday, with Mizzou traveling to Manhattan, Kan. to face Kansas State. The Tigers enter the weekend in a tie for third place in the Big 12 Conference with Texas A&M with a 14-5 conference record. Mizzou is 19-7 overall and ranked No. 24 in this week's USA Today/CSTV Top 25 Coaches' Poll. Kansas State is 18-10 overall on the year and 12-7 in the Big 12, which puts it in fifth in the league standings. KSU is ranked No. 23 in the poll. With a win on Saturday, the Tigers would set a new school record for Big 12 Conference wins in a season with 15. The 2000 and 2002 Mizzou teams each were 14-6 in the conference. Kansas State is the defending Big 12 Champion and has won the last eight against the Tigers, including a 3-0 win in Columbia earlier this season. The selections for the NCAA Tournament will be announced on Sunday at 5:45 p.m. on ESPNEWS. MU will be looking to receive its fifth straight postseason selection.

SCOUTING KANSAS STATE
Defending Big 12 Conference Champion Kansas State is 18-10 on the season and in fifth in the conference standings with a 12-7 Big 12 record. The Wildcats are ranked No. 23 in the latest USA Today/CSTV Top 25. They have their last two matches after winning the three previous. Valeria Hejjas leads KSU with a 3.84 kills per game average and is hitting .279 on the season. She adds a 2.44 digs per game mark. Hejjas was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year last season and was named to the All-Big 12 First Team. Lisa Martin, a Big 12 Honorable Mention selection last year, has a team-best .362 hitting percentage and averages 2.61 kills per game. Suzie Fritz is in her fourth season as the KSU head coach, compiling a record of 89-32. She has been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year in each of the past two seasons.

THE MU-KSU SERIES
Kansas State leads the all-time series with Missouri, 33-26 and has won the last eight meetings and 20 of the last 21. The lone Mizzou win during that stretch came in 2000, a 3-0 win for the Tigers in Columbia.

LAST TIME OUT
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- The Mizzou Volleyball team tied a school record for wins in the Big 12 in a season as it recorded its 14th of the year with a 3-0 (30-18, 30-20, 30-18) win over Oklahoma on Wednesday at the Hearnes Center. Missouri (19-7, 15-4) recorded its second-straight sweep and its 10th of the season with the three-game sweep over Oklahoma (11-17, 3-16). MU has won 10-consecutive matches against the Sooners and 12 of the last 13 match-ups between the two teams. The Tigers hit .423 as a team and had four players with hitting percentages over .500, led by Jenny Duitsman's .714 mark. Duitsman, who was honored prior to the match as part of Senior Night, had five kills and four digs. Shen Danru led Mizzou with 15 kills and hit .517, followed by Lisa Boyd's 12 kills and .526 hitting percentage. Jessica Vander Kooi had 10 kills for the Tigers. Lindsey Hunter had 44 assists and every Tiger that played on Wednesday recorded at least one dig, led by Vander Kooi's eight. Texas A&M defeated Kansas State, 3-1, on Wednesday to remain in a third-place tie with Mizzou in the Big 12 Conference standings with one match to go in the regular season.

POLL VAULTING
Missouri climbed into the USA Today/CSTV Top 25 Coaches' Poll last week, coming in at No. 25 and this week moved up to 24th. Over the last five years, MU has spent 42 weeks in the Top 25. Other Big 12 Conference teams in this week's poll include Nebraska (No. 2), Texas (No. 11) Texas A&M (No. 18) and Kansas State (No. 23).

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Several Tigers are on pace to move into the Mizzou season record books this year. Lindsey Hunter currently has 1,323 assists on the year, which puts her in a tie for fifth in season assists at MU. At her current pace, she would finish the season with 1,374 assists. Hunter already holds the top spot with 1,690 as a freshman in 2002. She had 1,413 last year which is fourth most in school history. The 14.38 assists per game average Hunter currently holds would become the new record, passing her mark of 14.08 in 2002. Jessica Vander Kooi and Shen Danru are each have 366 kills on the year, just 13 away from reaching the Top-10 in school history. If Lisa Boyd and Nicole Wilson were to maintain their hitting percentages of .404 and .375 respectively, they would take over the No. 1 and No. 3 spots in the Tiger record book in season hitting percentage. Tatum Ailes is averaging 4.15 digs per game, which would be a new school record, easily passing the old record of 3.55 set by Naaron Branson in 2001.