Sept. 8, 2005
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COLUMBIA, Mo.--Next for the No. 14 Missouri volleyball squad is a weekend trip to Bozeman, Mont., for the 12th annual Holiday Inn Classic hosted by Montana State. In the tournament docket is another top-10 showdown for the Tigers, as Mizzou will face No. 9 Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon. Missouri will also face Montana State on Friday and Northern Colorado Saturday evening. Currently, Mizzou holds a 3-0 record and has the nation's leading setter in senior Lindsey Hunter and is leading the nation in kills per game.
About the Tournament ...
The 12th annual Holiday Inn Classic will have your No. 14 Missouri Tigers, No. 9 Wisconsin, Northern Colorado, and host Montana State going for spoils in the two-day four-team round-robin tournament. Here's a quick look at the schedule:
Friday, September 9
(all times local, Mountain time)
4:30 pm - No. 9 Wisconsin vs. Northern Colorado
7:00 pm - No. 21 Missouri at Montana State
Saturday, September 10
10:00 am - Northern Colorado at Montana State
Noon - No. 9 Wisconsin vs. No. 14 Missouri
4:30 pm - Northern Colorado vs. No. 14 Missouri
7:00 pm - No. 9 Wisconsin at Montana State
Scouting No. 9 Wisconsin ...
The Badgers are very similar to Mizzou in the fact that both squads are 3-0 and have swept their way to being at that record. Wisconsin took care of San Jose State, Weber State, and Butler pretty easily last weekend and will face the Tigers looking for a little redemption. Last year, the Tigers traveled to Madison, Wis., and took down Wisconsin, then ranked 23rd in the nation, 3-1, in both team's season openers, winning 30-19, 25-30, 37-35, and 30-13.
Despite Wisconsin's early season loss to the Tigers, the Badgers went on to reach the NCAA Tournament's regional final, taking down third-seeded Hawaii in the process. Wisconsin fell to eventual national-champion Stanford in that round's match, but is now carrying six of seven starters from '04 to '05.
Statistically, Wisconsin leads the Big Ten and is fifth in the nation in blocks per game (3.89). In addition, they lead the Big Ten and are eighth nationally in hitting percentage (.333). Individually, sophomore Taylor Reineke is the current national leader in hitting percentage (.628). Senior Sheila Shaw is fifth in the nation in blocks (2.00 bpg).
Scouting Montana State ...
The Bobcats of Montana State from the Big Sky Conference enter the tournament at 3-3 overall after going 1-2 over the past weekend at the BYU Invitational. Utah Valley State was a 3-1 victim of the Bobcats last weekend. Kansas defeated MSU, 3-1. Junior Kim Stonehouse leads the team with 2.9 kills per game entering the weekend.
Scouting Northern Colorado ...
The Bears of Northern Colorado are in their final year of their reclassification into Division I. Next year they will be part of the Big Sky Conference as well, but for now are listed as a D-I independent. The Bears are 1-3 on the early season, having defeated Wyoming. 3-2, in a squeaker last weekend. Senior Amanda Wiggins leads the team with 3.6 kills per game.
The All-Time Series...
As far as all-time series go, the Tigers have seen all three of these teams before. Montana State and Mizzou last met in Columbia in 2003, as the Bobcats came down for the Tiger Invitational. Missouri swept MSU in '03, and lead the series 2-0.
The aforementioned meeting with Wisconsin has some added meaning because of last year's match; however, the Badgers lead the all-time series 3-1. The last time Wisconsin and Mizzou played on a neutral court was in 1978 in Iowa City.
The Tigers have also played Northern Colorado before. Twenty-five years ago in 1980, the Bears defeated Mizzou 2-1 in Manhattan, Kan.
Last Time Out ... 74 minutes
Before the UMKC match, this topic was entitled, "Last Time Out ... 95 minutes", because it took only 95 minutes to sweep both Utah and No. 9 Tennessee the weekend before in the Tiger Invitational. Well, it only took 74 minutes to sweep UMKC on Tuesday.
The Tigers commanded the `Roos, winning 30-13, 30-11, and 30-13, hitting .461 as team, holding UMKC to -.056. Na Yang and Jessica Vander Kooi led the Tigers with a match-high 13 kills. Vander Kooi also had six total blocks as part of 11 total team blocks.
Movin' On Up
The Tigers started the season with a No. 21 ranking on the AVCA/CSTV's National Top 25 poll, and on Monday that ranking jumped seven spots. After the team's sweeps of Utah and No. 9 Tennessee, the nation's coaches moved Mizzou to 14th in the country. The win over the Lady Vols was arguably the biggest upset in collegiate volleyball over the past weekend.
The Tigers' previous high-ranking was in 2003, when the Tigers reached 18th in the country before succumbing to a 3-0 road sweep from Utah.
Hunter Named Big 12 Player of the Week
Lindsey Hunter, a native of Papillion, Neb., tallied 100 assists in two Tiger victories last weekend, including the upset of No. 9 nationally-ranked Tennessee. Hunter, winning her first conference player of the week honor of her career, led the Tigers to sweeps over Utah (30-28, 30-22, 30-21) and the Lady Vols (30-27, 30-23, 30-20) at the Tiger Invitational in Columbia, Mo.
In the season opener against the Utes, Hunter recorded 45 assists, two service aces and six digs. It marked the 80th time of her career to post 40-plus assists in a match. She also guided three Tigers -- Jessica Vander Kooi (13), Na Yang (11) Shen Danru (10) -- to double-digit kills in the win. Missouri compiled 55 kills in the match.
Hunter, a 2004 AVCA All-American, dished out 55 assists versus No. 9 Tennessee while leading No. 21 Mizzou to a .353 team-hitting percentage. The squad hit at a .500 efficiency in game three to clinch the match. Five Mizzou players reached double-digit kills in the upending of the Lady Vols. Hunter also contributed five digs, three block assists, three kills and a service ace. It was the Tigers' first Top-10 victory since 2003 when they defeated then No. 10 Nebraska in Lincoln. It also accounted for the only sweep over a Top-10 opponent in school history.
On the week, Hunter averaged 16.67 assists, 1.83 digs and directed Missouri to a .307 hitting percentage. She currently leads the Big 12 in the assists category, while Missouri is the top-ranked team in assists (18.33 apg) and tied for first with Colorado in kills at 19.17 per game.
Hunter is the first Tiger since Shen Danru to be named Big 12 Player of the Week, as Danru in September 2003 averaged 5.14 kills and 4.14 digs per game in a two-match series that included a sweep of Texas Tech.
Setting for Success
In three seasons at Missouri, senior Lindsey Hunter has made a name for herself as one of the most dominating setters in the Big 12 and throughout the country, leading the Big 12 in assists per game all three seasons. She has been named to the National-A2 Training Team twice and in 2004, Lindsey ranked fourth in the nation in assists per game with 14.43. In the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2004, Lindsey recorded 62 assists against Arkansas. Lindsey's success on the court has only been equaled in the classroom and she was named an Academic All-American in 2004. Already, the 2005 season is looking bright for Lindsey as a preseason All-Big 12 selection.
Leading the Nation
The NCAA just released their official national statistical rankings for all matches through Sunday. In those rankings, Missouri's Lindsey Hunter is shown to lead the nation in assists per game with 16.67, after the two tournament win sweeps over Utah and No. 9 Tennessee. After the UMKC match, Hunter fell to 15.44 assists per game, but Hunter had enough of a cushion as leader, that she would still be above the second-place setter (Colorado's Ashley Nu'u).
Also worth noting ... Missouri and Colorado lead the nation in kills per game for all matches through Sunday with 19.17 kills per game.
Just Three More Games To Go
Junior Nicole Wilson has to play in only three more games to be eligible for Missouri's school record in career hitting percentage. Once she plays in those three games to make her total 200 games played, her career hitting percentage of, currently, .335 will be posted as the best the team has ever seen. And actually, it won't even be close as second place will be Christi Myers current record career-hitting of .322.
.500-.500
The Tigers posted back-to-back games in which they hit exactly .500 for a team. Oddly, it came over the course of two matches. The Tigers' clinching game three over No. 9 Tennessee was an amazing feat, hitting .500 against one of the best teams in the nation is quite an accomplishment. Mizzou came back to the Hearnes Center two days later to open their match against UMKC in the same fashion, hitting .500.
Vander Kooi ... the Cooler
Whenever a team may feel they are starting to get an advantage over Missouri, here comes junior Jessica Vander Kooi. In several instances so far this season, Vander Kooi would come up with outstanding plays in the form of body-crushing slams for the kill, well-planned blocks, or point-saving digs, to demoralize the opponent. No. 9 Tennessee had kept the Tigers on their toes in the game one of the Sunday Tiger sweep, but whenever the Lady Vols saw an opening to game, it was quickly closed by Vander Kooi. In that game alone, Jess had six kills, ending up with 12 overall. In addition to the kill total, Vander Kooi had 11 digs to record her 30th career double-double.
Make `Em Say, Uh, Uh, Na-Na Na-Na, Na-Na Na-Na
What a fast start to the season it has been for sophomore Na Yang. The 6-3 outside hitter has been all over the place for the Tigers in their three matches, tallying double-digit kill totals in each of Mizzou's first three matches (that's all been sweeps). Against Tennessee, Yang recorded her highest kill total of the year thus far (15). Yang also hit a modest .407 in the match. We say modest because that's her lowest match hitting percentage of the season. Yang went an errorless 13-of-22 against UMKC to secure a .591 hitting average. All-in-all, Yang is averaging .486 on the early year. And, looking at last year's numbers, totals in kills per game, digs per game and points per game have all doubled.
Number 9 ... Number 9 ... Send Another One Down The Line
The Tigers have played considerably well against teams ranked No. 9 in the country recently, and that will be tested again this weekend. Last year the Tigers lost to No. 9 Texas in Austin on October 13, then rebounded to defeat the No. 9 Longhorns in the Hearnes Center on November 14. Last weekend, Missouri took down No. 9 Tennessee. This upcoming weekend, the Tigers will travel to Bozeman, Mont., and play in Montana State's Holiday Inn Classic. The pinpoint match on the docket will be the Tigers meeting with No. 9 Wisconsin, on Saturday at 11:00 a.m., local time. The Badgers will be looking to avenge a 3-1 loss suffered at the hands of the Tigers from the beginning of 2004.
Fields of Gold
At least one person in Bozeman, Montana, will be very familiar with Columbia and the Tigers. Montana State's Director of Athletics is Peter Fields, and, earlier in the decade, Fields was the Assistant Athletic Director for Financial Operations at Missouri.
Nine Days ... Six Matches
It's that time of year. Volleyball season usually starts with a lot of tournaments before teams hit conference play and this year is no exception. The Tigers are ending the stretch of six matches in nine days with the Holiday Inn Classic. Mizzou hosted Utah and Tennessee last weekend for the Tiger Invitational and played UMKC on Tuesday.
It's Baby Time!
The Tiger volleyball family has a new member. Assistant coach Deng Yang delivered a 7 lb., 14 oz., baby boy on Wednesday (August 31st) at 5:15 p.m. Yang, and husband, Chen Feng, named the new Tiger, Logan Chen.
The Career Record Watch Board
Senior Shen Danru already holds the Missouri career records in kills per game and total attacks, but is actually very close to the top in THREE more categories. With 1,381 kills, Danru is 97 kills from Yvette Buhlig's all-time record; with 156 service aces, Danru needs eight to surpass Buhlig in that category as well; and with 1,082 digs, Danru is only 90 scoops from Naaron Branson's all-time record.
Also worth watching in senior Lindsey Hunter's all-time assist total. Hunter currently has 4,728 assists and the Mizzou all-time record is Heather Gerber's 4,955. Before the season began, only 16 players have ever eclipsed the 6,000 total assist mark in NCAA history. With a small schedule than normal, it may be tough for Hunter to reach a number like that. But, if Hunter would stop setting today her 13.63 school-record assists per game would set SIXTH all-time in NCAA history.
The Ol' Switcheroo
In their sixth season as coaches of the University of Missouri Women's Volleyball Team, Wayne and Susan Kreklow are swapping positions. After five seasons working as Associate Head Coach of the Missouri Women's volleyball team, Wayne Kreklow will take on the title of Head Coach while his wife Susan will assume the position of Associate Head Coach to the team. The Kreklow's have been very successful in their previous seasons at Missouri, turning the Missouri Women's Volleyball team into a force in the Big 12. Before coming to Missouri, the Kreklows were co-head coaches at Columbia College for both the men's and women's teams.
Since Missouri does not proclaim the Kreklows as co-head coaches, the NCAA will consider their win-loss records separately. Susan's win-loss record stands at 109-46 through five seasons. The .703 winning percentage is the best in school history for a coach's career. Prior to Missouri, Susan was head coach of Columbia College's women's team from 1990 to 1993 and co-head coach with Wayne from 1994 to 1999. As a women's coach, Susan accumulated a winning record of 565-132 (.811) over 15 seasons. Susan was also co-head coach with Wayne for Columbia College's men from 1997 to 1999, giving Susan an overall record of 618-156 (.798).
Wayne brings to Missouri a 267-29 (.902) women's head coaching record from his days with Susan at Columbia College which will stand as his NCAA-official coaches' record through six seasons. Added to a 53-24 (.688) record from coaching Columbia College's men's team, Wayne is 320-53 (.858) overall as a head coach. Prior to joining his wife at Columbia College in 1994 as co-head coach, Kreklow was an assistant coach at Missouri under Craig Sherman for five years.
Wayne's 300th Match?
Speaking of technicalities, Wayne Kreklow will be coaching in his 300th match as a head (or co-head) volleyball coach when the Tigers take on Montana State on Friday. Wayne at Mizzou is 3-0, added to the 267-29 he accumulated in six years as co-head coach of Columbia College, he's now officially 270-29 (.904) as a head coach.
The Kreklow Revolution
In their previous five seasons at Missouri, Wayne and Susan Kreklow have revolutionized Tiger Volleyball. In their first season at Missouri in 2000, the Tigers jumped from ranking ninth in the Big 12 to second and Susan Kreklow was named the 2000 Big 12 Coach of the Year. In 2002, the Tigers finished No. 20 in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Poll, the highest year ending ranking in Missouri history. Through the Kreklows' leadership, Missouri has been to five consecutive NCAA tournaments, certainly a different look from the years of winning only four to five conference games a season.
Mizzou Volleyball... Dig It!
After having a successful career at Bellevue West High School in Bellevue, Nebraska, Tatum Ailes has brought that success to Mizzou. Last year as a freshman, she not only set school records for digs in a season with 432 and digs per game in a season with 4.19 but also set the mark for digs per game in a career. The latter record broke the old record by over 15 percent proving her dominance defensively last season. Ailes also had at least two aces three times in a game including her personal-best six aces against Kansas. If her first year was any indication, Tatum Ailes should be poised to have a great career here with Mizzou Volleyball.
Super Seniors
For three seasons, they have dominated the Big 12 conference with their abilities to hit, assist, and kill and as Lisa Boyd, Shen Danru, and Lindsey Hunter enter their final season at Missouri, they show no signs of slowing down on or off the court. Since coming to Missouri, Lisa Boyd has been a two-time Academic All-Big 12. In 2004, she was the Big 12 leader in hitting percentage and took over the Missouri record for hitting percentage with an astounding .384. Shen Danru has also left her mark on Missouri, being named, in each of her three seasons, to the Academic All-Big 12 and the All-Big 12 teams. She is not only the school record holder in career kills per game and attacks but last season moved into second on the all-time list of service aces. Not to be outdone by her senior counterparts, Lindsey Hunter has added her own touch to Missouri Volleyball as a two-time USA National A2 team member and a two-time All-Big 12 First Team selection. Hunter has led the Big 12 in \assists since joining the Tigers and in 2004, was named Academic All-Big 12. Already in 2005, Hunter has been named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team. No doubt the 2005 season holds many more accomplishments for the three super seniors as they prepare to say goodbye to the Tigers and as Missouri prepares to say goodbye to three of its volleyball legends.
Spanning the Globe
In 2001, Missouri added its first ever Eastern Hemisphere player with Shen Danru, a freshman out of Shanghai Sports School who had been part of China's Junior National Team in 1999. Since beginning her career at Missouri, Danru has set a new school record in career kills per game and attacks. Following in Danru's footsteps is Na Yang, a sophomore from Shan Dong, China who played with Danru on the 1998 Chinese World Teenage Championship Team. A promising player, Yang started in 12 games as a freshman and had double-doubles in kills and digs last year in four matches. In 2005, Missouri adds two more China natives to its team in Lei Want and Yi Zhang. Wang played twice with the Chinese Junior National team and attended Shanghai Sports School. Zhang was named MVP of the Chinese Youth Volleyball team in 2000 and in her first semester at Missouri in the winter of 2005 had a GPA over 3.7 and topped over 300 students to be at the top of her math section. For 10 days in May 2005, the Missouri Volleyball team visited China, playing matches against Bei Hang University and Beijing University.
Home, Sweet, Home
One of the great aspects of Tiger Volleyball is its home crowd. In 2004, the Tigers were 19th in the country in attendance, averaging 1,460 fans per game. With the Point Mizzou Band, an eccentric fan base, and great game play, the Hearnes Center is always rockin' on Tiger Matchdays.
Yep, They're Smart Too
In 2004, seven members of the Missouri Volleyball Team were Academic All-Big 12 Honorees and in 2005, the team will welcome back six of those seven. 2004 was the first time senior Lindsey Hunter, juniors Jessica Vander Kooi, Abbie Booth and Nicole Wilson were named Academic All-Big 12 along with two and three-time honorees, seniors Lisa Boyd and Shen Danru. Boyd was an honoree in 2003, Danru in 2002 and 2003. In the winter semester of 2005, the Tigers set a new team record with a team term GPA of 3.29, beating out the previous semester's record of 3.27.