Volleyball wins tense match
The team hopes to overturn the Cornhuskers after a win at home.
Published Oct. 24, 2006
With a trip to No. 1 Nebraska looming, the No. 16 Missouri volleyball team couldn't afford a home loss to the Kansas State Wildcats, who finished the first half of the Big 12 schedule 1-9.
And though it wasn't easy or pretty, the Tigers managed to gut out a critical win in five games, winning 30-26, 26-30, 30-22, 27-30, 15-12. Senior middle blocker Nicole Wilson led MU with 23 kills, including a critical one that put the Tigers (14-6, 8-3 Big 12) ahead 13-11 in the fifth game.
Two points later, Wilson nailed a kill in the center of the court to win the match, allowing MU to breathe a sigh of relief.
Wilson, freshman Lei Wang and coach Wayne Kreklow all agreed that the Tigers were not comfortable in the match.
Kreklow worried that his team was beginning to play down to the performance level of its opponents.
"It's a very real phenomenon being uneasy as the favorite," he said. "It's a different feeling for this team and one we have to deal with."
The Tigers were also uneasy with K-State (9-12, 1-10) outside hitter Angie Lastra, who notched 23 kills. Just three matches ago, Wildcats coach Suzie Fritz moved Lastra from libero to outside hitter.
Kreklow said MU struggled to defend the 5-foot-6-inch junior's attacks.
"In a way, she's harder to defend than a 6"1' hitter," he said. "She's really hard to block."
For MU, the attack was spread out. After Wilson, senior outside hitter Jessica Vander Kooi registered 19 kills and 12 digs. Freshman Julianna Klein and junior Na Yang had 12 kills apiece.
But the Tigers also had eight service errors and only hit .238 on the match. Wang said the team was too uptight during play.
"We didn't play, I guess 'as we were supposed to,'" she said. "We didn't have fun out there much of the time."
Kreklow said MU's errors kept the Wildcats in the match.
"The moment we stop making unforced errors is when we pull away," he said. "But we never pulled away."
Kreklow agreed with Wang's assessment of the team's psyche.
"We had trouble relaxing, and that was frustrating," he said.
It was the sixth five-game loss of the season for K-State in as many five-game matches. Despite the loss, players were proud of the way they played.
"The loss doesn't hurt too bad," sophomore Megan Farr said. "We played so hard."
Fritz echoed that feeling but said the Wildcats made mistakes that cost them a winnable match.
"We had an inability to make detailed plays," she said. "And we let Missouri control the ball in game five."
With a major bullet avoided, the Tigers will head to Lincoln, Neb., on Wednesday for a match against the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers, who swept MU on Oct. 11 at the Hearnes Center.
Wang said the Tigers should be loose for the game because they are not considered the favorite.
"We're going to have nothing to lose," she said. "But we should limit our errors as a team. We can win if we play cleanly."