Sept. 19, 2008

Complete News & Notes in PDF Format

COLUMBIA, Mo.—The Missouri volleyball team (5-5, 0-1 Big 12) will play on its home floor for the first time in the 2008 season this Sunday when they host the Baylor Bears (9-2, 1-0 Big 12) in a 1 p.m., contest. Mizzou holds a six-match winning streak over the Bears in Columbia and have won three-straight overall in Columbia dating back to last season. The first 500 through the gates on Sunday will receive a free schedule T-shirt. Additionally, those with a ticket stub from Saturday's Mizzou football game versus Buffalo can gain admission for only $2.

The Three-Week Synopsis …
The Tigers came through the three-week-long pre-season tournament schedule with a 5-4 record. Arguably, Mizzou's best victory came in a five-set triumph over St. John's, a 2007 NCAA Regional semifinalist, in the final match of a tournament in Maryland. Mizzou was down in every set, but came back to win the three needed. The Tigers also showed strength in pushing now-No. 21 BYU to five sets on its home floor in Provo. Sophomore OH Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) is the Tiger leader in offensive production with 3.44 kills per set on the season. Sophomore L Caitlyn Vann (Muncie, Ind.) has 4.74 digs per set this season for second overall in the league.

On Wednesday, the Tigers dropped its Big 12 opener at Oklahoma in four frames, even after winning the first set and having a 19-16 lead in the second.

The Tigers took four trips in a row, to BYU, to Maryland, to Nevada, and to Oklahoma before playing a match in the Hearnes Center, that's 10 matches without a home contest, marking the longest such streak since 1997 when the Tigers played 15-consecutive matches away from home to start the season. 

Good news, the Tigers ended the 2007 season with a three-match home winning streak and carry that into Sunday's match.

Scouting Baylor …
The Bears are coming off a four-set win over Texas Tech on Wednesday in its conference opener.  Baylor has only played two matches away from home this season, and stands 1-1 in road games and 9-2 overall.

The Tigers swept the series in 2007 with the Bears, winning the match in Columbia in a five-set thriller. Mizzou holds a six-match winning streak over BU in the Hearnes Center.

Allison King leads the Bears with 139 digs for the season. Both King and Katie Sanders had 11 digs in their last match against Texas Tech, while Anna Breyfogle led the team with 19.5 total points in the match. Breyfogle also leads the Bears in blocking, with eight blocks against Tech and 59 on the season. Baylor currently leads the Big 12 in hitting percentage at .252. Overall, the Bears have scored 674.5 points to their opponents' 495.5.

-- Molly Hulsey

The First to 25 … Wins!
Okay, new rules. For the fourth time in a decade collegiate volleyball has made a major change to the game. In 2001, scoring went from side-out to rally. In 2003, we added the libero. In 2005, the libero could serve. AND, in 2008: we play to 25. Why keep a record book anymore? By the way, that's a joke.

Sets (yes, not games – that's an NCAA-mandated change in terminology) will be played to 25 points, with the fifth set still concluding at 15 points (you still have to win by two). The NCAA is progressively becoming more consistent with the FIVB (international federation) rules, and the change in scoring is a step in that direction. What does this mean bottom line? Shorter matches and a more concentrated effort to stop scoring runs before they the set becomes quickly out of hand.

In the Preseason …
Mizzou was picked to finish fifth in the Big 12 by the league coaches. Sophomore MB Weiwen Wang (Nanjing, China) was the lone Tiger selected to the Preseason All-Big 12 team.

In her role, Wang led the Tiger team last year in service aces (34), and was second on the team in kills per set (2.96), blocks per set (0.89), hitting percentage (.256), and points per set (3.78). In addition, “Wendy” was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on October 8 after posting school records with 19 errorless kills and 13 total blocks in the October 3 match at Colorado. She repeated the 19 errorless kills when the Buffaloes came to Columbia on November 24.

Vann Named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week … September 8
The Big 12 office announced Monday that Missouri sophomore Caitlyn Vann (Muncie, Ind.) was named as the league's volleyball Defensive Player of the Week. Vann, collecting her first league honor, helped the Tigers (4-2) to a 2-1 record in the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Invitational in College Park, Md., last weekend, collecting 58 digs on the weekend (5.27 dps) including a Big 12 and career-high 34 in a five-set win over St. John's.

Mizzou swept host Maryland on Friday and won a 59-tie, 27-lead-change thriller over St. John's, a 2007 NCAA regional semifinalist, on Saturday. Kentucky, a 2007 NCAA-Tournament team, handed the Tigers its only loss in the tourney on Saturday morning.

Vann, the team's libero, also had double-digit dig totals in the sweep of Maryland (13) and against Kentucky (11).

Vann leads the Big 12 by a wide margin with 5.21 digs per set so far this season. Texas' Heather Kisner is next on the roll with 4.50 dps. Vann is also in the nation's top 20 in the category.

Sophomore Julianna Klein was named to the All-Tournament team at Maryland, leading Mizzou with 4.00 kills per set.

Crazy Eights and Zero Seniors …
What have we learned so far in 2008? If the Beijing Olympics taught us anything, it's that the number eight is a lucky number for the Chinese and in its culture, all the more evident with its beginning of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on 8-8-08 at 8:08:08 p.m.

The Missouri volleyball team in the 2008 season also wishes to employ the luck of the number EIGHT. The Tigers have been to EIGHT-consecutive NCAA Tournaments – every one of them in the decade, with Nebraska being the only other team in the Big 12 to match. For as young as the Tigers seemed last season, they return EIGHT to the team this season, five of which started in more than 20 matches last year. And, get used to the faces – there are zero seniors in 2008, meaning it will be a carbon-copy roster in 2009.

 “I look at us on paper and what we have returning, and that makes me feel positive about what we are able to do this year,” said Head Coach Wayne Kreklow. “We've got a core group – we've got a returning setter, we've got a lot of returners from last year's team back.”

Welcome Back, Klein …
Not included in the list of “technical starters” from last season is junior OH Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa). Klein started last season on a roll, recording kill-dig double-doubles in five of her seven matches played, averaging a then-team high 4.44 kills and 2.85 digs per set, and tabulating a career-high 26 kills in the season opener at Mississippi. But, in the September 7 match versus Houston, Klein went down in the third set, tearing the ACL in her left knee – her season would be over. However, Klein has bounced back, gone through rehab, and is ready to pick up where she left off.

“Jules has had a great spring in coming back from her injury,” said Kreklow. “She's worked really hard in rehab and has consistently been ahead of all of her rehab goals, so she's really put in the time and effort in the training room to come back. I thought by the end of the spring she was close to where she was in the fall, so she's made a lot of progress off the court. She's obviously very anxious to get back out on the floor again and she's done a good job working on the little things, like her passing game. She's always been a big power hitter, and she's worked hard on the things that are going to be necessary for her to get where she wants to go if she wants to be all-conference, be an All-American player, and help us get back to the tournament again.”

Setting the Table Again …
Now in her fourth year in the Mizzou system, S Lei Wang (Shanghai, China) has a lot to look forward to in her redshirt-junior campaign. Having already guided the Mizzou ship in the last two years as setter, Wang has seemingly found her stride improve with each match experience. Oddly enough, her experience last year had to be tweaked a notch because of the injury to Klein. On occasion, Kreklow would utilize the 6-2 system, making Wang's play in the front row strictly at the net as a right-side hitter. Although her overall assist-per-set average was down because of the variety of positions that she had to play, Wang still recorded two triple-doubles including a 10 kill, 49 assist, and 15 dig effort versus No. 25 Oklahoma on September 29.

“I thought she had a great second half of last season,” said Kreklow. “She really came on during the month of November and into tournament time and did a real excellent job. What we've worked on during the spring has been her individual defense and blocking. I think she's got a good grasp of what is required of her as a setter and I look for that to improve.”

 

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