Sept. 27, 2006
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The No. 19 nationally-ranked Missouri Tigers extended their home win streak to ten straight matches, defeating the Baylor Bears 3-1 on Wednesday evening. The Tigers (10-4, 4-1) survived a scare from BU (13-3, 2-2) before handing the Bears their ninth straight loss to Missouri 30-23, 26-30, 32-30, 30-26.
Head Coach Wayne Kreklow called the win "ugly," but was not surprised by this type of play from Mizzou.
"I told Susan [Kreklow] that we were either going to play really well or really bad," Head Coach Wayne Kreklow said. "A volleyball match is a fragile thing. Everything could be going your way, but if you lose concentration, you start to play not to lose."
Despite Missouri's shaky performance against the Bears, Kreklow looks at it as something to build off of and have to be prepared for these types of games in the conference.
"Sometimes things like this can be a learning experience," he said. "It's better to win ugly than to lose pretty. We were bending a lot but we didn't break, and that is the way the conference is going to be."
Jessica Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) had her ninth double-double of the season, tallying 18 kills and 20 digs along with four blocks. Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) led all players with 21 kills, a career high for her, and Na Yang (Shan Dong, China) had 12 kills. Nicole Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) had 15 kills on the night while also moving up the record chart. Wilson takes sole possession of second place with total career blocks, and had seven on the night, giving her a total of 379. Freshman Lei Wang (Shanghai, China) dished 55 assists, along with six digs and four blocks.
"It feels good, but I'm not going to ever let up," Klein said on her career high in kills. "I'm going to keep going out and practicing hard. I'm going to keep swinging, so I'm going to work hard all the time."
Vander Kooi, who was named AVCA National Player of the Week last week, gave most of the credit to her teammates.
"That's a great accomplishment, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without my teammates," Vander Kooi said. "We just had a great two games that past week."
Missouri held Baylor to a .188 attacking percentage while hitting .247. The Tigers were out blocked by the taller Bears 19.5 to 12.
Anna Breyfogle led the Bears with 16 kills and nine blocks and Nicole LeBlanc had double-double with 11 kills and 18 digs. Setter Taylor Barnes had 11 aces on the night, breaking the previous Hearnes Center record of nine.
In game one, after Baylor tied the score at 4-4, the Tigers reeled off four straight. After leading 11-7, the Bears went on a four point streak of their own to tie the game at 11. From then on, the Tigers took control, stretching the lead to six twice at 18-12 and 22-16. Baylor cut the gap to two at 24-22, but the Bears only scored one more point after that as the Tigers won 30-23. Vander Kooi and Yang led the Tigers with five kills, three digs and two blocks each. Wilson had four kills and Klein added three.
The Tigers started off slow in game two and Baylor took a 10-4 lead. Mizzou narrowed the lead to four at 12-8, but the Bears again added to their lead. A controversial call where Baylor appeared to have four touches but were still given the point gave the Bears a 18-12 lead. BU extended their lead to 10 at 25-15. It appeared that Baylor would win the match as they led 29-20, but a kill by Klein that gave the Tigers new life. The Tigers scored four straight, forcing a timeout by the Bears. The Tigers closed the lead to 29-26 before the Bears put Mizzou away 30-26. After hitting .429 in game one, the Tigers went cold, hitting only .108 in game two. Klein led Missouri with six kills and Vander Kooi had four.
With the match tied 1-1, the game went back and forth with neither team taking control. Mizzou gained its first lead since game one at 13-12 but struggled to keep the lead as Baylor went up 17-16. The teams continued to trade points before Baylor began to pull away. The Bears took a 26-21 lead and were about to run away with game three but two straight kills by Brittney Herzog (Boonville, Mo.) and Vander Kooi gave the momentum to Mizzou and five straight points by the Tigers tied the game at 26. The Bears took a 29-28 lead but a thunderous kill by Vander Kooi and kill by Yang gave the Tigers the lead. With the game tied at 30-30, Baylor committed a service error and a block by Klein put Mizzou over the edge, 32-30. Klein led the Tigers with eight kills in game three. Vander Kooi had seven kills and eight digs to give her a double-double on the evening.
The Tigers had all the momentum coming into game four and used it to their advantage, taking a 6-2 lead and forcing Baylor to take a timeout. Mizzou took a 12-7 lead before the Bears scored six of the next eight points to bring the game to 14-13. Vander Kooi did not have a kill until the score was 20-17, but had two straight to give the Tigers a 22-17 lead. Missouri never trailed in game four and led by Wilson, who had seven kills and three blocks, the Tigers defeated Baylor 30-26 to take the match 3-1. Klein had four kills in the game while Vander Kooi had two kills to go along with seven digs.
Mizzou takes on Texas Tech Saturday in Lubbock, Texas. The match is set for 7:00 p.m.
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