Sept. 8, 2006
AUSTIN, Texas - The No. 15 Missouri volleyball team (6-3) fell to No. 4 Santa Clara (6-1) on Friday afternoon at the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas, losing 30-24, 18-30, 20-30, 24-30. The Tigers had to face two top-five teams in two days and while Mizzou won game one, they were unable to contain the Broncos offense. Senior Jessica Vander Kooi paced Mizzou with 15 kills.
Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) recorded a double-double adding 10 digs and four blocks. Nicole Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) scored 15 kills and added six blocks. Freshman Lei Wang scored a double-double with 43 assists and 11 digs, adding three blocks.
Game one started cleanly for both teams as there were very few unforced errors across the board. The stanza started close as the teams tied 11 times on the way to 14-14. With Vander Kooi back at serve, Mizzou rattled off five-straight points to take a 18-14 lead and force Santa Clara to a timeout. Mizzou would eventually have a five-point advantage, leading at 21-16 after a Vander Kooi kill. Santa Clara's Kim McGiven scored on three kills in a row to cut the lead to two. Behind a serving run by Klein, the Tigers scored four straight on a Klein kill, a Yang kill and back-to-back Wilson kills to surge to a 26-20 lead. Two back-row kills by Vander Kooi basically shut the book on game one as the Tiger took it 30-24. Mizzou scored 20 kills in the frame on a .296 hitting percentage. Nicole Wilson led Mizzou with seven kills. Hantouli and Vander Kooi added four kills. Santa Clara was held to a .184 hitting strike.
Santa Clara jumped to a quick 7-3 lead and starting at 12-7, the Broncos went on a eight-point stretch, behind the serving of Crystal Matich. Mizzou could not get a foot-hold and went on to lose 30-18. Mizzou was outhit .424 to .053 and was held to only 10 kills. However, Mizzou scored on four more blocks.
Although the score was tied at 8-8, Santa Clara took control of game three with an 8-1 run and eventually led by nine to put the frame out of reach. The Broncos at 25-15 was hitting over .500 but ended the stanza with a .378 hitting stripe, outhitting Mizzou who grabbed a .163 hitting percentage.
Game four started similarly to game one, a lot of ties and a lot of lead changes. After Mizzou tied the score at 17-17, Santa Clara won three-straight points to grab their biggest lead of the game at 20-17. Santa Clara used another four-point run to put the game and match out of reach.
The all-tournament team will be announced following tonight's Texas-Penn State match.
The Tigers have completed non-conference competition and will begin Big 12 Conference play Wednesday, traveling to Boulder, Colo., for a showdown with the Buffaloes of Colorado.
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