Volleyball Sweeps Weekly Big 12 Awards
9/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. - After winning the Pepperdine Asics Challenge over the weekend, the Mizzou volleyball team swept the Big 12 Weekly awards, as announced by the league office on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Senior outside hitter Paola Ampudia (Cali, Colombia) was named Big 12 Player of the Week while freshman setter Molly Kreklow (Delano, Minn.) and senior libero Caitlyn Vann (Muncie, Ind.) earned Big 12 Rookie of the Week and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors, respectively.
With the sweep, Mizzou becomes only the second team in Big 12 history to sweep all three weekly awards. The only other team to do so was Nebraska back on Oct. 27, 2008. The trio helped the Tigers win their sixth straight match to open the season, marking the best start by a Tiger team since 2005 when they made it all the way to 12-0.
"Obviously this is great for our program and it is great for our kids," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "I thought we had a great weekend and I thought that those three kids did a great job for us against some high quality competition. Really I just couldn't be happier for our team and for those three."
With the Player of the Week nod, Ampudia has now won the award twice in her two-year career at Mizzou. She last won it after her school-record performance at Kansas when she had 35 kills. Over the weekend, Ampudia was the Tigers' top offensive weapon and led them in kills in each of the three matches. She totaled 50 kills over the three matches on .261 hitting, including a season-best 19 against Pepperdine in the championship match. She moved from seventh in the league in kills per set to first overall with her performance over the weekend as well. She hit .344 with 15 kills against Rice and had 16 kills on .312 hitting against Eastern Washington as well. Ampudia was named Tournament MVP over the weekend.
"This is a great honor for me," Ampudia said. "I thought that our team played really well and I thought that anyone on the floor could have earned the award this week. We have made so much progress as an offense and that it really exciting and I think the best is yet to come from us."
For the second straight week, Kreklow is the Big 12's Rookie of the Week after putting together her finest weekend in a Tiger uniform. She passed out 136 helpers at the tournament (13.60 per set) while increasing her Big 12-leading 12.89 assists per set. She dished a career-best 52 assists in the Tigers' four-set win over Pepperdine and handed out 47 more in the Tigers' sweep of Rice, which is a Mizzou record in a three-set match (25-point set era). She handed out 18 in the second set of that match, which is also a school record in the 25-point set era. She continues to quarterback an offense that ranks first in the league in kills (16.11 per set), assists (15.11 per set) and second in attack percentage (.315). She earned a spot on the All-Tournament team for her efforts over the weekend.
"It is just a great honor to earn this two weeks in a row," Kreklow said. "I am just really happy that the team has had success and hopefully the team, along with me, can keep performing at a high level as we head to Western Kentucky this weekend."
Vann compiled 6.20 digs per set over the weekend (62 total), helping her earn her fourth Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honor. Her last came in 2009 when she took home the honor on Oct. 5. Vann led Mizzou in digs in each of the Tigers' three matches over the weekend and pulled in a season-best 25 in the championship match against Pepperdine. In that match against Pepperdine, she was also perfect on serve receive, converting all 44 of her chances against one of the toughest serving teams in the nation. She pulled in at least 18 digs in each of the Tigers' three matches with 18 against Rice and 19 against Eastern Washington. She moved her season average from 5.00 digs per set to 5.63 digs per set, which now ranks second in the league this season.
"It feels good to earn defensive player of the week because I know how hard I have worked to improve my defense," Vann said. "I have put in a lot of extra work and taken a lot of extra reps to get my defense to where it is today. Also, I think the award is a measure of how well our team is playing right now, especially the block. Without the block, I don't get to a lot of the balls that I have been getting to."
The Tigers will return to action this weekend as they will look to remain unbeaten in non-conference play at the Western Kentucky Invitational. Mizzou will play Western Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Central Arkansas and Virginia Tech at the two-day tournament in Bowling Green, Ky. For all the latest on Mizzou volleyball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com.
