May 1, 2008

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The full numbers from the fall of 2007 are in, and the University of Missouri volleyball team proved in the past semester to be a great component to the academic achievements reached by Mizzou Athletics on the whole as eight Tigers earned grade point averages of 3.0 or better. In addition, a recent NCAA report on Academic Progress Rate (APR) billed the department tops in the nation among public institutions in the BCS conferences.

Over half of the Tiger volleyball squad earned high grades in the fall, including libero Tatum Ailes (Bellevue, Neb.), setter Luiza Jarocka (Warsaw, Poland), outside hitter Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa), defensive specialist Shayli Meyer (Sioux City, Iowa), defensive specialist Lindsay Smith (Hermann, Mo.), setter Lei Wang (Shanghai, China), Weiwen Wang (Nanjing, China), and Na Yang (Shan Dong, China).

"Our numbers from the fall demonstrate the solid progress and illustrate the many great efforts our team and our academics staff within the department have made in the last several years," said Head Coach Wayne Kreklow. "We were also pleased to see that many of the other teams at Mizzou have done so well academically and were recognized by the NCAA for their prominence on the national level."

Mizzou Athletics also led the Big 12 Conference in Academic Progress Rate for the 2006-07 year. The APR is a broad based new measurement that tracks a school's student-athletes in their progress toward their degree, focusing on elements of retention and eligibility. Nine MU teams had the highest APR for their sports in the Big 12 Conference, which was the most by any school in the league. Seven Tiger squads were recognized recently by the NCAA as ranking in the nation's top-25 within their sport, a best among public BCS institutions.

At the department's annual Academic Awards Breakfast, Director of Athletic Academic Services Dr. Joe Scogin indicated that the past year has been marked by outstanding success in the classroom for Tiger student-athletes. Scogin said that the most recent winter and fall semester grade point averages were 2.88 and 2.81, respectively, for all MU student-athletes, which were both just shy of school records, while approximately 50 percent of MU's nearly 500 student athletes achieved a 3.0 grade point average or better during both of the last two terms. Mizzou had 224 student-athletes named to the Big 12 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, and enjoyed a record 170 student-athletes named to their respective dean's list during the fall of 2007.

NCAA Volleyball Adopts International Scoring

In March, the NCAA Women's Volleyball Rules Committee and the Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved several new rule changes for the 2008 season. Chiefly among the changes was the adoption of the FIVB match-scoring system in which games one through four will now be played with rally scoring to 25 points instead of the 30 used since 2001. The fifth set will still be played to fifteen. Quoting the rationale from the committees, "There seems to be a reduction in the intensity of many contests in the middle of a set that is played to 30 points. The intention of this rule change is to increase fan and player focus and fan excitement. Additionally, the Division I Championship committee recommended this change."

The NCAA committees also made a point to change the official terminology from "game" to "set" to be more consistent with the rest of the world's usage.

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