University of Missouri
Texas
No. 22 Tigers Dominate No. 5 Texas in Sweep
9/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2006
COLUMBIA, Mo. - In 31 attempts, the Missouri Tigers had never been able to defeat a top-five team. The No. 22 Tigers (9-4, 3-1) ended that streak Saturday night against the fifth-ranked Texas Longhorns (8-3, 3-1), sweeping UT 30-23, 30-23, 30-19. The Tigers won their ninth-straight match at home and extended their home winning streak over the Longhorns to seven matches in front of 2,477 fans, their ninth largest home crowd ever.
"It was one of those nights, everything clicked," Head Coach Wayne Kreklow said of the victory. "It was a tale of two contrasting situations, they got rattled. I think in this league, it is tough to play on the road. The difference was we were playing the small balls very well, any off speed ball, we just took control of."
Na Yang (Shan Dong, China) led the Tigers with 17 kills and seven digs, while Jessica Vander Kooi (Hinton, Iowa) had 13 kills, eight digs and five blocks. Yang narrowly missed her fourth double-double in a row, and Vander Kooi was two digs away from a fifth straight double-double. Nicole Wilson (Lincoln, Neb.) had 11 kills and tied her career high with nine blocks. Lei Wang (Shanghai, China) had 35 assists, eight digs and four blocks. Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) had seven kills on the even along with three blocks, and freshman Brittney Herzog (Boonville, Mo.), who has played sparingly this season, was a pleasant surprise for the Tigers. Herzog played in all three games and had four kills to go along with four blocks.
Dariam Acevedo led the Longhorns with 11 kills and 10 digs.
With everything going the Tigers' direction, Kreklow felt they can match up with anyone in the nation.
"When we play like this, I think we are capable of beating anyone in the country," Kreklow said. "Compare how we are playing now versus the first two weeks, everything is better."
The Tigers held the Longhorns to a .154 attacking percentage on the evening and out blocked the Longhorns 15-4. Mizzou forced Texas into committing 24 errors and only committed 12 of their own. Missouri had .312 attacking percentage.
Tatum Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) climbed up the record chart, passing Gwen Mullens in career digs. Ailes needed 13 to move up to fourth place, and had 19 digs on the evening. With nine blocks against Texas, Wilson closed the gap to six blocks to move into second place in career blocks.
In game one, Mizzou took a 4-0 lead and appeared to take control of the game before Texas came back and took the lead. After the Longhorns stretched their lead to 14-9 and a timeout by Missouri, the Tigers began to cut into the lead, tying the game at 15. Everything seemed to go Missouri's way from then on and the Tigers never trailed and scored six points in a row. Nicole Wilson provided several momentum swings with multiple blocks, tallying three blocks in the first game. As a team, Missouri out blocked Texas 7-2 in the game. Vander Kooi and Yang led the Tigers with four kills each, and the Missouri defense was stifling, holding the Longhorns to a .089 attacking percentage. Klein and Wilson had three kills in the game.
Missouri continued its strong play into the second game and Texas was constantly forced to call timeouts in hopes of killing the Tigers' momentum. Still, the Tigers held control and stretched its lead to as much as seven with the score at 21-14. The Longhorns managed to cut the lead to four at 26-22, but after a Missouri timeout, the Tigers scored four of the next five, with the final one coming on a Wilson block, and defeated the Longhorns 30-23 to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Wilson and Yang led the way with five kills each and Vander Kooi had four kills. Missouri continued to give the Longhorns fits with their defense, holding Texas to a .163 attacking percentage while the Tigers hit .341 in the game. The Tigers were more disciplined, only committing four errors to Texas' eight.
On the verge of being swept, the Longhorns were clearly frustrated and had a difficult time setting up attacks and continued to make several errors uncharacteristic to the fifth ranked Longhorns. Missouri took a 7-3 lead early on, before Texas narrowed the Tiger lead to two at 11-9. After a Mizzou timeout, the Tigers again stretched their lead to 15-12 and stretched it to ten several times in the game before defeating the Longhorns 30-19.
The Tigers will stay home to face Baylor on Wednesday night in the Hearnes Center, starting at 6:30 p.m. The second First-Serve Tailgate will kick off Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. for VolleyZou members.
###
