Sports Feature: Volleyball fans create ecstatic atmosphere
Published Oct. 13, 2006
Wearing a gold turban with a spray-painted "M" on the side, MU sophomore Russell Mason eagerly awaited the start of Wednesday's Missouri-Nebraska volleyball game.
He and his friends had painted "Canned Corn" on their stomachs in an attempt to help the Tigers take down the Huskers.
"We just love (MU volleyball) so much," Mason said. "We've come to every game so far."
But this wasn't just any game. The Hearnes Center was packed Wednesday night with 6,105 fans, the third largest turnout in Tigers volleyball history, for the match-up of the teams.
The energy in the Hearnes Center could be heard from the rafters down to the court.
"The spirit is just so much higher, the intensity of the fans, the girls, everything," Mason said. "It's just crazy out here."
Just like the team had a game plan for the match, up in the stands, the crowd had a game plan of its own.
"We're just going to be as loud as we possibly can," Mason said. "We might not be as good as Nebraska, so we have to do everything we possibly can to help the girls win this game. (We have to) be as loud as we can."
Freshman Brett Knight also placed special importance on these matches and was hopeful for MU's chances before the game.
"I like to support Mizzou in whatever they do, especially when we can take down the No. 1 team in the country like we are about to do tonight," Knight said before the game.
Knight and his friends call themselves "super fans" and have attended every game this season, like many of MU volleyball's faithful.
"We call ourselves the 'super fans.'" Knight said. "Every match, we come equipped with signs to support the team we always stay after to congratulate the team."
Wednesday night, the signs were on hand, designed to intimidate the Huskers and help encourage MU.
"Today's sign, it's a two-part series," Knight said. "The first says, 'Shuck it, Nebraska.' The second one says 'Shuck it hard and shuck it long.'"
Knight, a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, said even before the Cardinals' playoff game was called because of rain, he had planned to come to the volleyball game.
"As much as I love the Cardinals, Mizzou volleyball comes first in everything that I do," he said.
Knight and Mason are just a few of the many loyal MU volleyball fans who have earned a reputation as some of the fiercest volleyball fans in the nation.
"From what I've heard, we have the loudest volleyball fans in the country," Knight said. "I think that any team in their right-mind wouldn't want to come play here."
Mason said he is proud of the claim that MU volleyball fans are the loudest in the nation.
"I take a lot of pride in that because (my friends and I) kind of started the whole thing," he said.
Two MU baseball players, freshman Kyle Gibson and junior John Thies, created the "Black Dungeon" for the Missouri-Nebraska game.
"We were quoting the Nebraska coach, they call this the 'Black Dungeon,'" Gibson said. "They said it was one of the hardest places in the Big 12 to play because of our fans and how wild we get and how crazy we get."
The end result of the match was not what these fans wanted, but Gibson still supports the team.
"It's rough pouring out your soul during the game and then they come up short," Gibson said. "But they played well, and it's always fun to come out and have the excitement that we had cheering on our team."
The players appreciate the support from their fans as well. Junior libero Tatum Ailes said the crowd impressed the team once again.
"It was good again," Ailes said. "It helped us a lot. I love playing in front of big crowds. It's just fun to do that. It was definitely the best crowd. It was very loud, and we love it when it's loud."
Even though the team struggled against the Cornhuskers, Ailes said the fans did their job for the Tigers.
"I could definitely feel (the energy)," she said. "It was just hard, tonight just wasn't our night."
Nebraska coach John Cook said though the crowd made it difficult for his team, past experience, both away and in the Nebraska Coliseum, helped his team adjust.
"It certainly is a distraction," he said. "But our players are used to that. And I'll tell you this, they'd much rather be in this environment than a place where there's nobody."