April 26, 2006
COLUMBIA, Mo.--The BeiHang University volleyball team of Beijing, China, completed their week-long trip into Mid-Missouri on Wednesday, playing the University of Missouri squad in a five-game slugfest of a match. BeiHang, China's collegiate champion in 2005, won 30-26, 31-29, 28-30, 21-30, 15-9, in a match that spanned two hours and 41 minutes. An estimated 1,200 Tiger fans witnessed the goodwill exhibition and more than 150 youths took part in a free clinic before the match.
Mizzou was led by soon-to-be senior Jessica Vander Kooi who scored 23 kills, adding 24 digs, five blocks, and thee service aces. In all, four Tigers had double-digit kill totals with senior Nicole Wilson scoring on 17 kills, adding five blocks and an ace.
Nicole's sister, Megan Wilson, made her Tiger debut by scoring a double-double with 13 kills and 15 digs, adding five blocks. Na Yang had 13 kills and three blocks for the Tigers.
The Tigers outblocked BeiHang 16-14 and was led in the category by Melissa Alberry who scored on six.
Redshirt freshman Lei Wang had 54 assists as part of her double-double in her Mizzou debut as starting setter, adding 15 digs and three blocks.
The real order of the day was defense as both teams combined for 224 digs. Big 12 Libero of the Year, Tatum Ailes scooped 25 digs, adding two service aces.
BeiHang was led by 2000 Olympian Qiu Ai Hai who had team-highs with 24 kills and 33 digs, adding four blocks. Yang Jia for BeiHang added 19 kills with 26 digs. Zhou Hua Rong tallied 61 assists, adding a match-high four service aces.
Games one and two were battles of attrition as the teams battled with super-long rallies that resulted in pour hitting percentages, but gave the match an exciting start. The Tigers were down as much as eight points to go down 17-9 early, but fought back to tie at 21-21 after a great serving rotation by Megan Wilson. The teams continued to tie at 27-27 before BeiHang took four of the next six points to win 31-29.
Mizzou had to rally down 16-11 in game three to forge a comeback, and did so with tough serving by Nicole Wilson and the thunderstrike of Jessica Vander Kooi. Nicole Wilson helped get the game back to a tie at 18-18. The teams were again tied at 25-25, and then BeiHang scored two straight before Mizzou scored on five of the next six to take the game after a four-point run during another Nicole Wilson serving rotation.
Mizzou went up 21-14 in game four off stingy defense that forced, for the first time in the night, BeiHang unforced errors. Mizzou won 30-21 after hitting .244 in the frame with Alberry tallying three blocks in the stanza.
Both teams hit with the most efficiency of the night in game five. Mizzou went without a hitting error, but was thwarted by 13 BeiHang kills.
Mizzou's spring season is now complete. In August, the teams will begin the 2006 campaign with tournaments at Long Beach State, Notre Dame, and Texas.
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