Mizzou and Texas Tech Meet in Lubbock
11/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2004
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Missouri will take on Texas Tech on Saturday in the first of two-consecutive road matches. The Tigers are 14-6 on the season and are tied for fourth in the Big 12 at 9-4 in the conference. Texas Tech is 8-12 on the season and 4-10 in Big 12 Conference play. Earlier this season, MU defeated the Red Raiders in four games in Columbia. MU has won four straight over Tech and seven of the last eight meetings between the two teams. With seven matches left in the season, Missouri is tied with Kansas State in the conference standings behind Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M. Mizzou has won eight of its last 10 matches on the season and is coming off a three-game sweep over Kansas on Wednesday, its seventh sweep of the season. Next up for the Tigers is a trip to Ames, Iowa on Wednesday to take on Iowa State at 7 p.m. The next home action for MU will be on Sunday, Nov. 14, when it will host Texas at 1 p.m. in the Hearnes Center.
SCOUTING TEXAS TECH
The Red Raiders are 8-12 on the season and 4-10 in the Big 12 Conference heading into the match with Mizzou this weekend.
Tech is led by All-Big 12 selection Kelly Johnson. The senior outside hitter is fourth in the conference with 4.37 kills per game. She also averages 2.29 digs per game.
Johnson had a game-high 22 kills in the Raiders match against Missouri earlier in the season.
Desiree Batista leads TTU with 3.37 digs per game and Brianna Florus has a team-leading 1.17 blocks per game average.
Nancy Todd is in her second season as the head coach at Texas Tech and has compiled a record of 19-30.
THE MU-TTU SERIES
Texas Tech leads the all-time series with the Red Raiders 11-7 and is 7-2 in Lubbock against Mizzou.
The Tigers have won four in a row over Texas Tech and seven of the last eight in the series. Prior to that stretch, Tech had won the first ten meetings in the series.
Earlier this year, MU took a 3-1 (30-20, 30-15, 26-30, 30-20) win over Texas Tech in Columbia.
LAST TIME OUT
COLUMBIA, Mo.--The Mizzou volleyball team recorded its seventh sweep of the season with a 3-0 (30-23, 30-26, 30-25) win on Wednesday at the Hearnes Center. With the win, the Tigers earn an additional 1.5 points in the Border Showdown to give MU a 5.5-4.0 lead in the year-long, all-sport series.
The Tigers have won five of the last six against the Jayhawks and Wednesday's match was the first in five matches between MU and Kansas not to go five games.
With the score tied at 19 in the opening game, Mizzou put together a 5-0 run to take the lead and went on to the 30-23 win to take a 1-0 advantage in the match. The Tigers out-hit KU .324-.132, as three MU players hit over .500 led by Jessica Vander Kooi's .667 hitting percentage.
Game two was similar to the first, as the two teams were tied at 23 when Missouri score five of the next seven points and finished with a 30-26 win to go up 2-0 in the match. Vander Kooi again had six kills in the game, as did Shen Danru. Danru added six digs in game two along with Tatum Ailes who had six digs in each of the first two games.
Mizzou took the lead in game three and led throughout, taking the 30-25 win to record the three-game sweep, the seventh sweep of the season for the Tigers.
Vander Kooi led Mizzou with 18 kills and 13 digs. Danru followed with 14 kills and 11 digs. Ailes joined Vander Kooi with 13 digs and added a career-high six aces.
HITTING THEIR MARK
The Tigers are third in the Big 12 Conference with a .283 hitting percentage on the season.
Lisa Boyd and Nicole Wilson are both near the top of the conference standings. Boyd leads the Big 12 with a .390 mark and Wilson is third, hitting .386 on the season.
Boyd has hit above .300 fourteen times this season and has had four matches where she hit at least .500, including two .800 hitting percentages.
Wilson has hit over .300 in all but five 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.
BOOTH DIGS IT
Sophomore Abbie Booth set a new career high with 19 digs to lead MU against Texas A&M on Oct. 27.
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 2.29 digs per game and has a 2.34 digs per game average in Big 12 matches.
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 103-43 record and four-consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Earlier this season, Kreklow recorded her 600th career win and currently has a record of 612-153, 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 (16.11) and kills per game (17.69).
The Tigers are third with a .283 hitting percentage and are third in digs per game (16.29).
Individually, MU holds the top two of the top three spots in hitting percentage as Lisa Boyd leads with a .390 mark and Nicole Wilson has a .386 hitting percentage, which is third best.
Wilson is also in fifth in aces per game with an average of 0.42.
Lindsey Hunter has a conference-best 14.33 assists per game average.
Shen Danru is eighth in kills per game (4.04), Jessica Vander Kooi is 10th in kills per game (3.99) and Tatum Ailes is sixth in digs per game (4.04).
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.
The Tigers have swept seven matches this season and are coming off a three-game victory over Kansas on Wednesday at the Hearnes Center.
SHEN SPLINTS
Junior Shen Danru leads the Tigers with a 4.04 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 1,223 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 970 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 4,135 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 14.26 average. Hunter has led the Big 12 in that category in each of her two previous seasons.
UP NEXT
The Tigers will take on Iowa State in Ames, Iowa at 7 p.m. on Wednesday before returning home take on Texas at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 14 in the Hearnes Center. Note the special day and time for the Texas match.
