Box Score
Whitney Little is now the all-time career blocks leader at Mizzou.
MOSCOW, Idaho -- Senior All-American middle blocker Whitney Little (Keller, Texas) reset the Mizzou school record for blocks in a career as she helped Mizzou defeat Portland, 3-1 (25-14, 21-25, 25-6, 25-22), on Friday afternoon (Sept. 12) in Mizzou's third match of the Idaho Nike Invitational. Mizzou is now 3-0 in the tournament and improves to 7-4 on the season. Little tallied her 455th career block in the third set and passes former All-American Christi Myers who had 454 from 199-2002. Little had three blocks in the match to move her career total to 456.
"Obviously I am really happy for Whit," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "She has been the model of consistency in her career and she, quite frankly, has worked very hard to improve her blocking and it just goes to show, if you work hard it will pay off. We knew this was going to be a tough day with back-to-back matches, but I am happy with how we came out and played."
Senior outside hitter Emily Wilson (Omaha, Neb.) continued her fine play as of late as she led Mizzou again with 21 kills on .500 hitting. Carly Kan (Honolulu, Hawaii) posted a double-double with 15 kills and a team-high 16 digs. It was her second double-double of the day after doing so against Boise State. Loxley Keala (Kaneohe, Hawaii) posted a double-double with 22 assists and 13 digs and freshman Ali Kreklow (Columbia, Mo.) spread 24 assists. Mizzou hit .245 in the win. Senior libero Sarah Meister (San Diego, Calif.) pulled in 15 digs as well.
Mizzou jumped all over Portland in set on, opening a double-digit lead at 16-6 and never letting the Pilots get their game going. Mizzou hit .333 in the opening frame with 13 kills. Kan and Wilson each added three kills and freshman Kasey Reuter (Sioux City, Iowa) added two more on .250 hitting. Kan led the way with five digs in the opening frame. Mizzou held Portland to .143 hitting in the first.
Neither team could get much breathing room in set two despite the Tigers jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Portland rallied and eventually opened a 16-14 lead after an attack error from Emily Thater (Springfield, Mo.). Mizzou rallied to take an 18-17 lead but it was all Portland from there as the Pilots scored eight of the last 11 points in the set to win, 25-21. Mizzou committed nine attack errors in set two, hitting just .022.
Mizzou opened a 14-3 lead in the third set and hit .550 with 11 kills on 20 errorless attempts to pull away with a 25-6 set win. Mizzou also had five aces in set three - two from Thater and Kan and one from Meister. Mizzou then closed out a tight fourth set with a 25-22 set win.
The Tigers will play Eastern Washington tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. (CT). For all the latest on Mizzou volleyball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouVB.