Nov. 26, 2005
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Just as the Thanksgiving weekend brought a topsy-turvy regular-season ending to the Big 12 football season, here comes the end of the Big 12 women's volleyball season that brought exactly the same. The No. 10 Missouri team survived a five-game, all-out battle on Saturday night in the Hearnes Center, winning 25-30, 34-32, 28-30, 30-27, 15-7. The Tigers (22-4, 16-4) finish the Big 12 season third in the standings, after No. 11 Texas stunned undefeated, No. 1 Nebraska in another five-game skirmish to take second-place outright.
Senior night for Tiger setter All-American Lindsey Hunter was maybe one of her best matches of her career, as she paced the Mizzou squad with a career-high 75 assists, adding eight digs and placing three important service aces. Hunter also scored on seven kills on errorless hitting. Hunter also eclipsed the career 1,000 dig-mark on the night, becoming only the seventh Tiger to do so.
Sophomore Na Yang scored a new career-high with 28 kills on .408 hitting, bettering her old tally of 21. Yang was one of five Tigers to score double-digit kill totals. Shen Danru added 18 kills, also marking a double-double with 16 digs. Nicole Wilson scored 16 kills, Jessica Vander Kooi notched 12 kills, and Lisa Boyd marked 10 kills.
Sophomore Tatum Ailes made a heroic effort, scooping 16 digs, adding three service aces. Ailes had to miss 11 points in the third game after colliding with Danru on the back row exacerbating a back spasm, but returned to finish the match.
The Tigers also scored on a season-high 14 service aces, with three coming from Hunter, Danru, Wilson, and Ailes.
The match featured a total of 42 ties and 19 lead changes over the five-game marathon. Twenty of those ties came in game four alone.
Boyd became only the third Tiger all-time to record 300 blocks in her career, notching a tied-team-high three on the evening.
Texas A&M (16-13, 9-11) will finish the Big 12 season tied with Iowa State in sixth place. The Aggies were led with 38 kills by national-kill leader Laura Jones.
In game one, A&M and Mizzou battled to 22-22 until Texas A&M scored eight on the next 11 rallies to take the first frame, 30-25. A&M scored 21 kills on one hitting error to notch a .606 hitting stripe.
In the second frame, Mizzou fought after being down five points at 26-21, taking the lead after an 8-2 run. The stretch, making the score 29-28, included a pin-point ace by Hunter in which she dropped the ball an inch off the left sideline, causing the Hearnes to go crazy. A&M regained the lead at 30-29 and again at 31-30, but the Tigers scored four of the next five to take the game 34-32 after a Hunter setter dump. The teams combined for 47 kills in the second game on nearly .400 combined hitting.
In game three, Mizzou squandered a 22-17 lead after A&M went on a 10-3 run, leading to a 28-25 Aggie advantage. Mizzou fought back to make the score 28-29, but lost the third stanza 30-28.
In game four, 20 ties kept the score close throughout, but at 25-25, Mizzou tore through with a four-point run, thanks to two kills by Boyd and an ace by Danru. Mizzou took the game 30-27.
In the game-five sprint, Mizzou went up 8-4 to force the changing benches. Mizzou scored seven to A&M's three to take the frame and match 15-7. A&M's Jones, who had 37 kills before the game, was held to only one kill in the stanza as the Aggies could only muster three total kills in the frame.
With tonight's match, Mizzou completed its regular season and will await a likely bid into their sixth-consecutive NCAA Tournament. The selection committee will announce the 64-team bracket along with the 16 first-and-second round host sites, tomorrow; at 1:30 p.m. ESPNews will air a 30-minute program at that time to announce the pairings. Missouri is a potential host for the first and second rounds, doing so for the first time in school history in 2004.