Dec. 4, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. - What a match it was. The Mizzou volleyball team (18-13) gave it everything in their five-game, 20-30, 30-27, 24-30, 30-25, 9-15 loss to No. 2 ranked and second-seeded Stanford (27-3) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament that ended the 2006 campaign. The Tigers came back from a game down and a came back from a 16-10 deficit in game 4 to get the volleyball World buzzing.
"I couldn't be more proud of our team," said Head Coach Wayne Kreklow. "We competed and played well. Overall, I thought it was a great collegiate volleyball match. Neither team played with a lot of errors."
Senior Jessica Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) in the final match of her career scored a team-high 18 kills, adding 14 digs and five blocks for the Tiger cause.
"It's been fun," said Vander Kooi. "We did everything we could and played hard to the finish."
For Tigers ended the night with double-digit kill totals as redshirt freshman Lei Wang spread 63 assists adding 10 digs and four blocks. Junior Na Yang had 15 kills with nine digs.
Senior Nicole Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) scored 15 kills and seven blocks in her career finale. Freshmen Julianna Klein and Amanda Hantouli scored on 14 and 10 kills, respectively.
Junior Tatum Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) had a outstanding match with 29 digs.
Stanford was led by Foluke Akinradewo with 26 kills.
Mizzou actually outblocked Stanford 14 to 11, Yang had three solo scores for Mizzou. Freshman Megan Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) came in at serve for three aces on the night.
The Tigers kept with the Cardinal to start game 1, holding the margin at two to four points all the way to 14-12. Behind the serving of Stanford's Nji Nnamani the Cardinal went on 7-0 run, hurting the Tigers with two aces to spread the lead to 21-12. Mizzou tried to rally off the serve of freshman Megan Wilson, scoring three-consecutive points thant culminated with a Wilson ace to pull the Tigers within six at 24-16. Stanford then continued their tough defense and efficient offense, going on a 6-2 run to pull close the book on Mizzou.
Stanford outhit Mizzou .432 to .163, forcing long rallies that in the set usually ended the Cardinal way. Mizzou's Klein had four kills on an errorless seven attempts in the frame.
To begin game 2, Mizzou set the tempo early, keeping rallies long in playing stingy defense that helped force uncommon Stanford unforced errors. After Stanford scored the first two points of the set, Mizzou went on a 5-1 run from back-to-back Vander Kooi kills on super-long rallies and the serving of Ailes who grabbed an ace in the stretch. A Nicole Wilson serving run added another three points for the Tigers to give Mizzou a 10-7 lead. Stanford fought back to tie at 11-11, but an 8-3 Tiger run that was full of crafty plays by the Tigers including an unsuspecting dump by Vander Kooi at set. At this point Mizzou took a five-point lead at 19-14. Mizzou would force a Stanford timeout after scoring three straight to put the score at 24-18.
A 4-2 Stanford run that turned into an 8-3 run forced a Tiger timeout at 27-26. With Stanford's Cythia Barboza who had already scored at serve four times in a row, the Tigers grabbed a critical point from a Nicole Wilson kill to go to 29-27. Stanford committed an unforced error at the net to give Mizzou the game two win.
The unforced errors mounted for the Tigers to begin game 3, as three service errors and overpasses gave Stanford a 13-8 lead to force a Mizzou timeout. Mizzou chewed at the lead and closed to three down at 16-13, but a Stanford run that included three-consecutive kills by Cardinal Kristin Richards put the Tiger deficit back to seven and forced a Mizzou timeout. The Tigers came back to 24-19, but a 4-0 Stanford run was all that was needed to put the game seemingly out of reach. Mizzou kept clawing though, as an Abbie Booth four-point serving run gave a small scare to Stanford at 28-23. The Cardinal scored on two of the next three points to take the game 30-24.
Game 3 was similar to game 1 as Stanford was forcing Mizzou to commit unforced errors. Stanford outhit Mizzou .293 to .186 in the frame.
Game 4 will go down in the record books as one of the more thrilling in school history. The Tigers came back from 16-10 down to take the game, going on a 20-9 run to close the amazing frame. With the score tied 8-8, Stanford went on an 8-3 run to go up 16-10 and put the Tigers against the wall. Then, serving runs by Booth and Vander Kooi gave Mizzou a 7-1 run and tied the score at 17-17. With a 20-19 Stanford advantage, the Tigers went on a monumental run, as after a Vander Kooi kills, the Tigers scored on three-consecutive blocks, two on Yang solo scores. Added with a Yang kill and another Vander Kooi kill, Mizzou pushed the lead to 25-20 on a 6-0 run. Although the teams traded hard-fought points back and forth, the Tigers survived and won with a Wilson kill at 30-25.
Stanford kicks on the jets in game five, going up to leads of 4-1 and 7-2 forcing Tiger timeouts at both intervals. At 11-5, Stanford had seven kills on eight errorless attempts, adding two aces to hurt the Tiger chances. Mizzou made the set interesting with a three-point run that forced a Cardinal timeout at 11-8. But, Stanford took control, ending the game with a 4-1 run.
The Tigers end the 2006 season with an 18-13 record and as one of only two teams from the Big 12 to have an active seven-year streak in the NCAA Tournament. ###