Nov. 8, 2007
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COLUMBIA, Mo.— The Missouri Tigers (14-10, 7-8 Big 12) are coming off a bye this past Wednesday in conference play, which could not come at a better time for the Tigers. After playing three straight hard-fought, five-set matches, the Missouri Tigers are well-rested to travel to Lubbock, Texas to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-18, 1-15 in Big 12) Saturday night at 7 pm CT. Mizzou goes for the season sweep of the Red Raiders, as the Tigers swept Texas Tech in the first confrontation between the two squads back in October in Columbia.
Last Time Out, Tigers Shake Off Baylor
The Missouri Tigers (14-10, 7-8 Big 12) overcame two sloppy, error-ridden games to upend the Baylor Bears (14-11, 6-8 Big 12) 30-21, 25-30, 29-31, 30-22, 15-13, on Friday night. With the victory, the Tigers extended their home winning streak against Baylor to six games. Mizzou stomped the Bears' five-match winning streak. Senior Na Yang led Mizzou with 29 kills, which, at the time, was a conference-season-best (Nebraska senior OH Sarah Pavan recorded 31 at Kansas State last Saturday). The difference in the match was Mizzou's strong defensive play, which has continued to be the integral part of the team's success throughout this season. As a team, Missouri recorded 21.0 blocks, the fifth most in Mizzou history and second most on the season. This match marked the third straight five-set match for Missouri, and with the win it pushed their record in five-set matches on the season to 5-5.
Ailes' In Battle for All-Time Big 12 Digs Lead
After tallying 23 digs in yet another five-set contest against the Baylor Bears in Columbia, Mizzou L Tatum Ailes continues her pursuit to put her name in the record books as the Big 12 Conference's all-time digs leader. Entering Saturday's match against Texas Tech, Ailes has accumulated 1,894 digs during her tenure at Mizzou.
Ailes is closely pursuing Kansas State L Angie Lastra who is 18 digs ahead of Ailes at 1,912 for the all-time conference lead.
As of November 8, Kansas State has four regular-season matches remaining while Missouri has five matches remaining. If either or both teams should make the NCAA Tournament, statistics from those games would be included in Ailes' and Lastra's career numbers as well.
Thanks go out to Iowa State SID Matt Shoultz who researched the league's all-time category leaders recently.
Na's Record Watch
Senior OH Na Yang (Shan Dong, China) is having a career-best season, having recorded 418 kills on the 2007 season and has already surpassed her 2006 total (351). Yang with her 11 kills versus Kansas State reached 1,300 kills for her career, becoming the fifth Tiger to do so. Yang is also just 105 kills from taking the fourth spot all-time on the career kills list from Christi Myers.
Yang this season has also tied Shen Danru's school record for most 20-kill matches in a single season. By recording 29 kills in the five-set match against Baylor, it marked the ninth time Yang has reached the 20-kill mark this season. Shen Danru set the single-season record in 2003 with nine 20-kill matches. Na Yang has now recorded 20 or more kills in 20 matches throughout her career, which is good for second-place behind Yvette Buhlig's school record of 22.
Yang has also positioned herself, with 4.45 kills per game this season, as having the second-best KPG total in a Tiger season. Yang is just ahead of Lisa Morris' 4.40 KPG, recorded in 2000 and still a far way from the school record (4.62) set by Yvette Buhlig in 1992.
Scouting Texas Tech …
The Texas Tech Red Raiders come into Saturday's match looking to salvage a considerably disappointing conference season when they take on the Tigers in Lubbock, Texas. After going 6-3 in the non-conference portion of their schedule, the Red Raiders have gone just 1-15 in conference play. Their lone conference victory came against the Colorado Buffaloes in the Big 12 opener.
The Red Raiders rank in the bottom-half of every major Big 12 statistical category. As a team, they are hitting just .189 on the season, and their opponents are hitting .265 against them, the highest percentage allowed by any Big 12 team.
Texas Tech is led by senior Alicia Ostmeyer and junior Michelle Flores. Ostmeyer has accumulated 226 kills on the season, and she leads all Texas Tech regulars with a .306 hitting percentage. Ostmeyer is also second on the squad in blocks per game with a 0.84 average. Flores is the team leader in kills, averaging 2.95 per game. She leads the team in points, and her 20 aces is tied for the most on the team, along with libero Jenn Harrell. Harrell has averaged 3.92 digs per game on the season, which ranks 8th best in the Big 12.
This matchup marks the 25th time that these two squads have met up. Missouri has won the last 10 team meetings, including a three-game sweep in Columbia earlier in the season. The Tigers have won four in a row in Lubbock dating back to 2002, and lead the all-time series 13-11.
-- Steve Keers
Klein's ACL is a Sideliner
The results from an MRI test conducted on September 10 came back with unsavory results as Mizzou OH sophomore Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) was diagnosed with a torn ACL in her left knee which was a result of an injury suffered in a September 8 match versus Houston in San Marcos, Texas.
In the third of four games against Houston, with the Tigers up 20-12, Klein went to attack a ball and then came down in pain.
Klein was leading Mizzou with 4.44 kills per game, up from her 2.75 average her freshman season and stood fourth in the Big 12 in the category. In addition, Klein's defense showed much improvement as her digs-per-game shot from 0.75 her frosh campaign to 2.85 this season, resulting in the first five kill-dig double-doubles of her career. Along with leading Mizzou with 0.48 service aces per game, Klein was third in the Big 12 with 5.30 points per game, behind only 2006 National Player of the Year Sarah Pavan of Nebraska and All-American Destinee Hooker of Texas.
Despite not playing in the final match of the CenturyTel Premier against host Texas State, Klein was named the tournament's MVP, scoring 5.67 kills per game on a .342 hitting strike for the Tigers while adding 3.33 digs per game and scoring 6.67 points per game.
Klein was also named to Ole Miss' Magnolia Classic All-Tournament team, opening the season with a career-best 26 kills against the Rebels.
Ailes, Big 12's Defensive Player of the Week – October 15
The Big 12 Conference announced Monday afternoon that Missouri senior Tatum Ailes won the conference's Defensive Player of the Week award. Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) proved once again last week to be a defensive force in leading the Tigers to sweeps over Texas A&M and Baylor, helping Mizzou (12-6, 5-4 Big 12) to its fifth-straight victory. Ailes tallied 6.67 digs per game, 40 total, in the two matches and maintained a .951 serve-reception percentage in cleanly fielding 39-of-41 serve attempts coming her way last week.
Mizzou now has back-to-back conference award winners for the first time in program history as freshman Weiwen Wang won the Big 12's Offensive Player of the Week award last Monday. This award is also Ailes' first weekly award from the conference. Ailes won Big 12 Libero of the Year honors in 2005.
In Wednesday's match versus Texas A&M, Ailes notched 19 digs while fielding 23-of-24 serve receptions. At Baylor on Saturday, Ailes had 21 digs to go with 15-of-16 serve receiving attempts. In addition, Ailes added two aces in a row in game one to give Mizzou the game one lead over the Bears.
Mizzou has now won five straight on the way to a fifth-place tie with Iowa State in the Big 12 standings and will host No. 1 Nebraska Wednesday and No. 7 Texas on Saturday.
“Wendy” Wang Earns Big 12 Acclaim – October 8
The Big 12 Conference announced on October 8 that Missouri freshman Weiwen Wang won the conference's Offensive Player of the Week award. Wang (Nanjing, China) led the Tigers to a 2-0 record on the week, which was part of a three-match winning streak at the time and included a five-game victory at Colorado and a sweep of Texas Tech, which allowed Mizzou to move from ninth to sixth place in the conference race. She averaged 5.62 points, 4.00 kills and 2.00 blocks while compiling a .527 hitting percentage and 1.38 digs per contest.
For the record, Weiwen's Tiger teammates call her “Wendy”.
At Colorado, Wang broke school records in blocks (13) and most kills without an error (19). Wang tallied a season-high 28 points in addition to recording the second-best attack clip (.559) in Mizzou history. The Nanjing, China native also contributed six digs and two aces to the Tigers' effort.
Against the Red Raiders, Wang posted 13 kills on a .476 hitting percentage with five digs, three blocks and two aces.
Wang was the first Tiger to win the honor since Jessica Vander Kooi's second career nod on September 25, 2006. In addition, she is the sixth person from Mizzou to win the honor in the last six years and the first Tiger freshman to win the award since Shen Danru did on September 9, 2002.
Television For Iowa State's Visit to Columbia
The November 14 volleyball match in the Hearnes Center between the Missouri Tigers and the Iowa State Cyclones will be televised on the Mizzou Sports Network. FSN Midwest will air the match live in Mid-Missouri and St. Louis while those in Kansas City can catch live action on MetroSports.
The Wednesday match is slated for a 6:30 p.m., start, and will be the third televised match of the season.
FSN Midwest and FSN Rocky Mountain will air live coverage of Mizzou's match at Colorado on October 3 while CSTV will air live coverage of the Tigers' visit to Nebraska on October 31.
Notes to Keep in Mind … 2006 Revisited
- The Tigers are coming off a 2006 campaign that included a seventh-consecutive birth to the NCAA Tournament. As a result, Mizzou and Nebraska are now the only programs in the Big 12 Conference to have made the post-season every year since 2000.
- Mizzou won their first-round matchup in the tournament for the third-straight year in 2006, knocking off No. 21 Santa Clara in a three-game sweep in Palo Alto, Calif. The Tigers forced eventual national runner-up Stanford to a five-game thriller in the second round on the Cardinal's home floor, coming back from a game down and 16-10 deficit in the fourth stanza to produce a fifth-game.
- Despite an 18-13 final record in 2006, the end-of-the-season surge produced a No. 21 final ranking in the AVCA Top 25, marking Mizzou's third-straight year among the nation's best. Only 15 teams have been sited on at least the last three final national polls.
Preseason Impressions
The coaches of the Big 12 picked Mizzou to finish third in the Big 12 Conference this season. Defending National and Conference Champion Nebraska was picked to win for the fourth-straight year. Texas was voted second. Truth-be-told, the voting for the third through ninth spots was incredibly close. Right on the Tigers' heels (or tail) in the voting was Texas A&M and Colorado. Iowa State and Kansas State were very close in voting as well. Oklahoma, finished second in the league last year, is picked ninth this season. It should be a very interesting season in the league.
The national impression of the league is also striking. Nebraska was the coaches' preseason pick to at national No. 1. Texas is also expected to have a big year, they ranked 4th in the preseason national poll. The Tigers had a No. 20 preseason ranking with Oklahoma, mentioned earlier that they were picked to finish ninth in the league, had a No. 22 preseason standing, ending the 2006 season with a No. 12 ranking. Texas A&M, Colorado, and Iowa State all received votes in the poll.
Senior Salute
At no time in Mizzou volleyball history have players entered the season with as much playing experience in the NCAA Tournament as seniors Tatum Ailes and Na Yang. Helping the Tigers to their seventh-postseason run in 2006, both Yang and Ailes have played eight NCAA Tournament matches in their previous three years at Mizzou which includes a run to the field's round of eight in 2005.
Both Ailes and Yang were named to this season's Preseason All-Big 12 team, and for Ailes, she became the first defensive player in league history to earn such an honor.
Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.) returns for her senior campaign fresh from an appearance on Team USA's A2-national training team this spring and returns to the team having been the Tigers' starting libero for three seasons. Meanwhile, Ailes has already made a lasting impression on the Mizzou program as the squad's all-time leader in digs and digs per game. In 2005, the coaches of the Big 12 named Ailes as Libero of the Year.
Yang (Shan Dong, China) is in her senior campaign as well and has an accomplished record from her previous three years at Mizzou. Yang has shown prowess during the regular season, but her numbers in the post-season are the outside-hitter's bread-and-butter. In eight NCAA Tournament matches, Yang has averaged 4.10 kills per game on a .304 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Surge
A very large, and important, piece of this year's puzzle is four returning Tigers in their second year of eligibility. The Class of '09 will vital in Mizzou's “Unleashing”.
Setter Lei Wang is already going into her second full year of leading the Tiger offense, coming off a successful frosh season in leading the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament with a 12.46 assists per game, 2.39 digs per game, and 0.98 points per game average. During the Big 12 season, Wang averaged 12.86 assists per game, ranking fifth in the league. Wang recorded 63 assists in the five-game NCAA second-round match at Stanford and was a crucial component of the Tiger game-four comeback, as Mizzou hit nearly .500 (13-2-24) from when the Tigers were down 16-10 to when Mizzou won the frame 30-25.
Keota, Iowa, native Julianna Klein stepped up during her true freshman season, finding a starting role in 18 matches last season. Klein scored 10-or-more kills in 16 matches last season, including scoring a season-high 21 kills versus Baylor on September 27. Against Stanford in the NCAA second round, Klein carded 14 kills and six digs. In addition, Klein's serve caught several opponents off guard early in the year as she scored 18 of her 23 aces from the season in the first 11 matches. Klein racked seven aces in an early-season tournament match against Villanova.
Amanda Hantouli started 25 matches last season as a redshirt freshman, finding her first playing time since an ACL injury sidelined the Omaha, Neb., native during her senior year in high school. Now a sophomore, Hantouli contributed 10-or-more kills in four contests and five-or-more blocks in six matches last season. Her play against Stanford in the NCAA second round gave many a picture into the possible future as she scored 10 kills on 15 attempts (.533), adding three blocks.
Megan Wilson will likely see quite a bit of playing time as a right-side hitter this season. The 6-2 sophomore from Lincoln, Neb., exposed much talent as a server as well last season. Against Stanford in the NCAA second round, Wilson added three crucial aces and served many points in efforts to throw the Cardinal offense. Wilson had three matches in 2006 with two-or-more aces.
Sparkling and New
This year's incoming freshman class will get much experience, very early. Unlike the class before that had three use redshirt seasons to refine their skills, this Class of 2010 will see time immediately.
Newcomer Caitlyn Vann comes to Mizzou from Muncie, Ind., and Burris High School. Vann, along with fellow newcomer Catie Wilson, was one of 35 to be named to the inaugural AVCA High School Senior All-American list. Vann was a three-time All-State selection at Burris, earning first-team honors in her junior and senior seasons. While Vann was recruited as a libero, she played as a left-side hitter in her years in high school, tallying 442 kills and 368 digs as team captain in her recently completed senior season. Vann was also a part of USA Volleyball's Junior National Training Team in 2006 and was before a two-year member of USAV's Youth National-A2 team.
Weiwen Wang comes to Mizzou from Nanjing, China, and is the fifth Tiger to come from the country. Wang was captain of her national-champion high school team and was a member of her country's team that won the 2006 World School Volleyball Championship in Porec, Croatia. Wang was also a member of the Chinese 15 & Under Youth National team that took third.
Catie Wilson (no relation to Megan Wilson) comes to Mizzou from Omaha, Neb., and Gross High School. Wilson, along with Vann was named to the AVCA's inaugural High School Senior All-American Team. In addition, Wilson was a four-time All-State selection, earning first-team honors in her junior and senior seasons.
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