Nov. 18, 2005

As she has grown and matured as a player in her three years on campus, Tiger middle blocker Nicole Wilson has seen the Mizzou volleyball program do the same. The Tigers have become a top program in the past three years as they made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year and were ranked in the top 10 this season.

"The program has improved and gotten stronger each year," Wilson said. "Fans and people on campus are interested now; the growth of the program has definitely been one of the highlights of my career."

Wilson came in and contributed immediately her freshman year as her and outside hitter Jessica Vander Kooi were the only two freshmen to play in every match during the 2003 season. Wilson played well as a freshman getting 163 kills for the season and had a hitting percentage over .300 in 16 matches. Despite her solid numbers, it was not easy for Wilson to contribute immediately.

"It was intimidating and a challenge," Wilson said. "It was one of my goals when I came here to do something my freshman year; not just be put in here and there, but to start and play. As the season went on, the girls got confidence in me and I started to get more confidence in myself in practice which helped a lot."

This season, Wilson has become even more of a force as she has seen her hitting percentage rise to .424 and is third on the team in kills with 253. Wilson was named the Sports Imports/AVCA player of the week and the Big 12 player of the week in September for her efforts against Colorado Sept. 21 and Kansas State Sept. 24. Wilson did not have an error in either match, recording 23 total kills with a .719 hitting percentage to help the Tigers sweep the Buffaloes and Wildcats.

"[Lindsey] Hunter was setting perfect balls for me, and I was seeing blockers and being patient and not rushing things," Wilson said. "If I was going to hit, I wasn't worried about making a mistake, I just went in and hit. I had kind of a reckless abandon which I think helped a lot."

In third grade, Wilson played her first volleyball match as she was introduced to the sport by her parents and PE programs in school. She began to play on club teams in seventh grade and then began to play on more competitive teams during her junior year of high school.

"I got on really competitive teams my junior year which made me excited to play," Wilson said. "It really got me excited to play because it was such a high level and everybody was good which made it fun to play."

Wilson starred at Lincoln Christian High School in Lincoln, Nebraska as she was first-team all-State twice and led the team with 430 kills, 183 digs and 63 service aces. "I went to a small school so we would struggle sometimes, but we were able to play lots of good teams close which was fun," Wilson said.

Wilson also was dominant on the hardwood as she earned all-State honors three times for basketball. Playing basketball helped her volleyball game by letting her focus on another sport and train other parts of her body.

"Basketball was good conditioning and it lets you get beat up a little bit and build some toughness," Wilson said. "In volleyball you focus on certain muscles and basketball is completely different. Playing basketball helped me develop some of the opposite muscles and now I can use them together."

Being recruited to play volleyball at the collegiate level was not something Wilson had expected, but she embraced the opportunity when it came along.

"I started playing club tournaments for fun, I wasn't expecting anything to come out of it," Wilson said. "Then letters started to come in the mail every day and I realized that this was a possibility."

For the rest of her career, Wilson hopes to continue to improve her game and become even more of a force for Mizzou.

"I just want to keep improving and become more of a threat," Wilson said. "I think each year I have become more and I want to continue to do that. I want to improve on my blocking and quickness and other little technical things that you have to do. I also want to become more of a quiet leader, someone that is there but no one outside of the team may necessarily notice too much."

The Tigers hope that the program will continue to improve with Wilson as her and the team hope to build on their success for the rest of this season and next. Wilson is a junior and is majoring in nutrition and fitness.