Nov. 28, 2006

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Tournament Central

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COLUMBIA, Mo.--The Missouri volleyball team (17-12) will play in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh-consecutive year, only Nebraska in the Big 12 has a longer current streak. The Tigers, who advanced to the round of eight a year ago, will look for its third-consecutive year with a first-round win in the tournament, as they draw Santa Clara (20-7) from the West Coast Conference, a team that defeated Mizzou earlier in the year in four games. The Tigers will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., for the sub-regionals that begin Friday at 4:30 p.m. (PST). The winner of the Tiger-Bronco match will face either host, second-seeded Stanford or Sacramento State in the second round.

 

 

 

 

Scouting Santa Clara ...

The No. 21 Santa Clara Broncos are set for a rematch with the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament as the Broncos were selected to their ninth consecutive tournament. Santa Clara reached the Final Four last year before losing to 3-0 to Nebraska in a surprise run for the unseeded Broncos.

 

Santa Clara is hoping for the same sort of magic against Missouri as the two teams met earlier this season in the Texas Invitational where the Broncos rallied to a 3-1 victory after dropping the first game. Santa Clara was ranked No. 4 in the nation at the time while the Missouri Tigers were No. 15.

 

In the match, Santa Clara hit .309 compared to Missouri's .195 hitting percentage in the match. Both teams struggled with serves and each team committed 10 service errors. Missouri outblocked the Broncos 13-7, but their hitting woes were too much to overcome as the Tigers hit as low as .053 in game two.

 

Senior outside hitter Kim McGiven led the Broncos with 21 kills and 14 digs and sophomore outside hitter Brittany Lowe also recorded a double-double with 17 kills and digs. Middle blocker Annalisa Muratore had 15 kills and setter Crystal Matich also had a double-double with 58 assists and 17 digs.

 

The Broncos lost Muratore after she retired from volleyball competition on Sept. 26, 2006 due to lingering injuries. Muratore is Santa Clara's all-time career leader in blocks with 1.30 per game and also in hitting percentage with .374.

 

Santa Clara finishes the regular season with a 20-7 record and went 9-5 in the West Coast Conference. McGiven leads the team with 4.30 kills per game and junior middle blocker Anna Cmaylo is second on the team with 3.83 kills per game. Libero Caroline Walters leads the Broncos with 4.35 digs per game and Matich has 13.32 assists per game.

 

Santa Clara ranks in the top-25 in the nation in several categories. As of Nov. 19, the Broncos are 22^nd in the nation in assists per game with 15.27. The Broncos are 25^th in the nation with a .262 hitting percentage and are 30^th in the nation with 16.27 kills per game. Cmaylo is 12^th in the nation with a .407 hitting percentage.

 

The Broncos have faced four common opponents with Missouri. The Broncos swept then-No. 25 Kansas State, Valparaiso 3-0 and then No. 21 Notre Dame. Santa Clara were swept by then-No. 7 Texas. Missouri defeated Valparaiso 3-1 and then-No. 21 Notre Dame 3-2. The Tigers defeated Kansas State twice and split the series with Texas.

 

Santa Clara leads the overall series with the Missouri Tigers 1-0, with their first ever meeting occurring this season.

 

-- Mustafa Mohammad

 

Vander Kooi CoSIDA Academic All-American

Late Monday afternoon the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced that Vander Kooi was voted to the organization's Academic All-American Second Team. Vander Kooi, a native of Hinton, Iowa, and two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree, becomes the first Tiger volleyballer to receive such an award since 1986.

 

Vander Kooi, an International Business major with a 3.84 GPA, becomes only the third volleyball Tiger to be voted to the CoSIDA team. Dianne Berg and Kathy Oriel made the list in 1985 and 1986, respectively.

 

All-Big 12 Award Winners ...

The Big 12 Conference announced Monday afternoon the conference's year-end volleyball awards. Tiger senior OH Jessica Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) was named to the All-Big 12 First Team for the third-consecutive year while senior MB Nicole Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) received honorable mention All-Big 12 honors for the second-consecutive year.

 

Vander Kooi finished the 2006 Big 12 season in the top 10 of three scoring categories including kills per game (7th, 4.05), service aces per game (7th, 0.33), and points per game (5th, 4.88). In addition, Vander Kooi was named Big 12 Player of the Week twice in September and earned AVCA National Player of the Week honors on September 22. Vander Kooi also landed on the Academic All-Big 12 list for the third-consecutive season.

 

Wilson finished the conference season in fifth place in hitting percentage (.341) and tenth in kills per game (3.63). Wilson leads Mizzou in the all-time hitting percentage category at a .350 clip.

 

Quickly, The Season in Review ...

Coming off the best season in school history, the 2006 Tigers have experienced a roller-coaster like year, filled with critical highs and lows.

 

The youthful team got its first bump when traveling to Long Beach State for the 49ers' invitational. A slow start led Mizzou to being swept by the Beach for the first time by a non-ranked team since September 2003.

 

But, a five-match winning streak that peaked with a emotional five-game winner over then-No. 21 Notre Dame kept momentum going.

 

The Tigers next ran into three-tough opponents in the third week of play, all which ended the season with a top-25 RPI. Then-No. 2 Penn State and then-No. 4 Santa Clara defeated Mizzou in three and four games, respectively. At Colorado to open the conference season, the Tigers lost a five-gamer.

 

But, the Tigers then went on the roll that help secure them an NCAA Tournament bid, winning seven-consecutive matches within the conference including a huge, 30-23, 30-23, 30-19, sweep over then-No. 5 Texas, the largest seed a Tiger team has ever defeated. Mizzou peaked on the AVCA poll at No. 12 on October 16.

 

The Tigers then went on a 1-5 slide that included two losses at the hands of No. 1 Nebraska and a sweep loss at surprising Oklahoma. A Friday night five-game fright at Baylor stole some wind from the Tigers' sail.

 

The most crucial win in getting the Tigers in the NCAA Tournament was a four-game win over Colorado on November 4. At the time, the importance was not known. But without the win, Mizzou would have had only one win over a top-25 RPI team (Texas) and may well have cost Mizzou a bid. The Tigers were dominate over the Buffs at home, winning 30-23, 30-17, 28-30, 30-28.

 

The Tigers gave a scare to the Longhorns again, this time in Austin on November 11. Mizzou won game one in a 31-29 squeaker, but Texas fired back and held Mizzou to a 30-12 game loss in the clinching game four. The Tigers showed a lot of resiliency in a five-game loss at home to Oklahoma. One of the more emotional and heart pounding games seen in a while, the Tiger-Sooner match-up went the "full-12 rounds" in boxing terms. The match saw 40 total ties and included a game five that had Mizzou with four match points, but Mizzou lost the game to OU 19-17.

 

A loss at Texas A&M in the final of week of the season dropped Mizzou 12 spots in the RPI from 34 to 46 and put the Tigers squarely on the bubble.

 

Hearts were racing on Sunday as the selection committee released the final bracket. Mizzou being in the last group announced did not help matters. Nonetheless, the season continues.

 

A Big Milestone

When winning their 10th Big 12 match of the season, Mizzou volleyball secured a nice achievement. In the past seven years, every year beginning with 2000, only Missouri and Nebraska have won 10-or-more conference matches in each of those seven years.

 

In addition, with Missouri earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, only the Tigers and Nebraska have made every tournament since 2000. Texas missed out on a bid in 2003, Colorado missed in 2002, Kansas State will likely miss the 2006 tournament for the first time in 11 years, and Texas A&M missed this year's tournament for the first time since 1993.

 

Last Time We Met ... Santa Clara

AUSTIN, Texas, SEPT 8 - 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.

 

Vander Kooi and Wilson Make Fourth and Final NCAA Appearance

Seniors Jessica Vander Kooi and Nicole Wilson have been through this before. The duo have played in each of the Tigers' seven NCAA tournament matches since their freshman year in 2003. As a freshman, Vander Kooi had a heckuva match in a losing effort against UC-Irvine in the first-round in Los Angeles. Vander Kooi solidified herself as a future force, scoring 23 kills, adding 18 digs, five aces and five blocks for 32.5 total points. Vander Kooi averages 3.04 kills per game, 3.15 digs per game, and 0.96 blocks per game in her career of NCAA Tournament play.

 

Wilson was named to the NCAA Penn State Regional All-Tournament team a year ago. In the regional semifinals versus Hawaii, Wilson scored seven blocks, adding eight kills in a winning Tiger effort. Against Tennessee in the regional finals, Wilson scored 15 kills, adding six digs.

 

Wilson and Vander Kooi also share a large part of the Mizzou record book:

Jessica Vander Kooi
ALL-TIME RANKINGS:	SINGLE-SEASON RANKINGS:
Kills: 2nd (1480)	Kills per game: 3rd (4.11 in 2006)
Attack attempts: 2nd (3769)	Points per game: 3rd (4.96 in 2006)
Digs: 3rd (1279)	Attack attempts: 5th (1137 in 2006)
Block assists: 3rd (316)	Block assists: 5th (97 in 2005)
Points: 3rd (1805.0)	Points: 5th (531.0 in 2006)
Total blocks: 4th (373)	Kills: 6th (440 in 2006)
Points per game: 4th (4.20)	Digs per game: 9th (3.22 in 2006)
Digs per game: 5th (2.97)	Block assists: 9th (84 in 2006)