University of Missouri
Santa Clara
Tigers Overcome to Advance to NCAA's Second Round
12/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif.--Not freezing rain, nor snow, nor sleet could stop the Mizzou volleyball team (18-12) once they arrived in Palo Alto, Calif., for the first round of the NCAA Tournament as they defeated No. 21 Santa Clara (20-8) in a sweep, 35-33, 30-24, 30-26. Mizzou overcame two days of flight-delayed travel to get to the West Coast, only to plow through a slow-start in the match to pull away with an impressive victory. The Tigers will face either No. 2 Stanford or Sacramento State in the second round Sunday at 7:00 p.m. (PST).
The Tigers won the first round match of the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, defeating a Santa Clara team that had went to the Final Four of the tournament a year ago. The win avenged a September 8 four-set loss to the Broncos.
"I felt game one was especially pivotal for us," said Head Coach Wayne Kreklow. "I knew we needed to get off to a good start to play well overall after the travel delays. I knew this was going to be a battle, but I wanted us to really focus on our play. We were consistently good, and whenever we do that, we can do some damage."
Tonight, junior Na Yang (Shan Dong, China) played brilliantly, leading the Tiger cause with 18 kills on a fantastic .372 hitting percentage. Yang also added nine digs and three blocks and an ace. Senior Jessica Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) captured 12 kills on an equally impressive .324 strike, adding 13 digs for her 19th double-double of the season and the third NCAA Tournament double-double of her career. Vander Kooi also added five blocks and an ace.
The Tigers outblocked the Broncos 12.5 to 2, helped by a seven-spot by senior Nicole Wilson who tied her NCAA-tournament career-high in the category. Wilson also added six kills and three service aces that was part of a team-tournament record 11 total for the Tigers on the evening.
Junior Tatum Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) came up again with outstanding defense, producing 17 digs, adding two aces from behind the serve line.
It took a while for the preverbal Tiger to get out of the tank in game 1, but once Mizzou shook off some ice they took care of business in of the more exciting games that a person could ever see. Mizzou started the game down 6-3 after a stretch of hitting zero kills with two errors on 12 attempts (-.182 hitting percentage), forcing a Tiger timeout. Mizzou came back with thunder, scoring six kills with no errors on 11 of their next attacks to take a 13-9 lead on a 10-3 run. The game's intensity kept rising as the points tallied for both teams. Santa Clara would eventually tie at 18-18 after a 4-0 run. Back-and-forth the score went as the teams tied at each score to 33-33. Mizzou facing match point at 29-28 got a favor after an MU timeout when a Bronco serve touched the top of the tape and fell to the floor on Santa Clara's side. At 33-33, Yang put up a solo block to give Mizzou the advantage for the game. Tatum Ailes closed the book with a service ace.
After the rough start Mizzou had 18 kills on only three errors in the next 49 attempts (.306). Mizzou's Yang had 7 kills in game one. Mizzou was outhit in the frame in total though, .286 to .213.
Mizzou grabbed and early two point lead at 4-2 in game 2 and then again at 7-5, but the Broncos' Lindsy Evans scored three aces in four points to give Santa Clara a 10-7 lead and force a Tiger timeout. Santa Clara would lead by three at 12-8 before Mizzou rattled off five-straight points, three from Na Yang kills to take the lead at 13-12. Santa Clara had to call a timeout after a three-point stretch by Mizzou that included a kill by Yang, a kill by Brittney Herzog, and a Vander Kooi-Herzog block to give the Tigers a 17-15 lead. Santa Clara scored four straight to again capture the lead at 21-19, but Mizzou shut the door on the Broncos with a 11-3 run as a result of serving from Vander Kooi, Booth, and Wilson who each scored an ace in each of they're respective service runs.
Mizzou hit .389 in the frame, committing only one error.
In game three the Tigers came back again, down 13-9 at one point. At 22-22, Mizzou went on a critical run that included back-to-back Vander Kooi kills, followed by a Vander Kooi-Wilson double-block, followed by an Ailes ace to put Mizzou up 25-22. Santa Clara did tie the score again at 25-25, but Mizzou closed the book with back-to-back Yang kills and a solo block by Yang again.
Mizzou will face either No. 2 Stanford or Sacramento State in tomorrow's second round match. All eyes will be on the match as it is the only match in the NCAA Tournament tomorrow.
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Missouri quotes
Coach Wayne Kreklow
On winning in 3 games:
First game was pivotal for us. Our travel situation made it a hard. It was important to play well. We played them earlier in Austin, they control the ball well, we know it was going to be a battle. Even after winning the 2 games, we had to maintain our level of play in the 3
On playing consistent:
Between games, looking at stats, the numbers weren't outstanding; about our normal numbers; what was significant was our consistency. We were consistency good. Making Santa Clara earn as many points as possible.
On Na Yang:
when she plays start to finish, she's a great player, its more emotional and mental for her, not physical. Its huge when she can show up and play at a high level. It's a good time for her to play
on possibly playing Stanford:
It's going to be a challenge an advantage playing in the Pac 10; it's hard we are respective of their talent. They have talented athletes. We are going to have to be aggressive and play, we aren't going to stop people, but control them, and make them play the game where anything can happen,
Senior OH Jessica Vander Kooi
All season we've gone through ups and downs, we've been in santa claras position, now the roles are reversed, tonight we didn't do anything special, but we were consistant, we had a smile on our faces.
Finishing in 3
Put ourselves in a position where calls wouldn't matter with our play
