Volleyball tournament match delayed
The match was delayed after they couldn't get a flight.
Published Dec. 1, 2006
Assuming it's able to get out of the state this morning, the Missouri volleyball team has a tall task this weekend in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers were slated to face the No. 21 Santa Clara Broncos at 6:30 p.m. Central time today in Palo Alto, Calif., but the team's flight out of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to San Francisco Thursday morning was cancelled because of mechanical errors. Then the team was unable to take off the rest of the day due to wintry weather.
Tom Lewis, the Tigers' sports information director, said the team plans to fly out Friday morning. The NCAA agreed to push the match to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Before getting stuck in St. Louis for more than a day, MU seniors were excited for their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in as many years.
Still, their sub-regional features the Broncos and then a potential second-round match up with the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal, which plays host this weekend.
The Cardinal faces the Sacramento State Hornets out of the Big Sky Conference in its first round match.
Senior defensive specialist Abbie Booth said the team's draw is very tough but fair, considering how poorly the 17-12 Tigers played down the stretch.
"I felt like the last half of conference play hurt us," she said. "It's probably been the hardest bracket I've had since I've been here."
The Tigers have already faced the Broncos once this year, losing in four games on Sept. 8 during the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas. Senior outside hitter Jessica Vander Kooi, who was named first team all-Big 12 earlier this week, said the match was so long ago that she can't really recall any of Santa Clara's strategies.
"I don't really remember everything from the first match," she said. "But it does help having faced them once before."
Booth, Vander Kooi and middle blocker Nicole Wilson all said they haven't thought about the fact that their competitive volleyball careers, in all likelihood, will end this weekend.
"I don't think about it being over," Wilson said of her career. "When the last point is played, whenever that is, then I'll realize it."
Booth said that Missouri hasn't thought about a potential match against the Cardinal in the second round, the class of the Austin Regional.
"We're just preparing for Friday," Booth said Wednesday before the Santa Clara match got pushed back. "If we don't win the first match, then Stanford never happens."
Of the four teams in Palo Alto, the Tigers have the lowest kills, RPI and assists per game. But Wilson said a major key for MU was to head to California with the confidence that they're capable of winning two matches.
"We have to keep our heads up," she said.
And even before the Tigers got stuck at the airport, Vander Kooi was excited to escape at least some of the cold weather.
"When my friends were like, 'Oh no, Thursday the weather's going to be terrible,' I was like, 'Hah! I'm going to California,'" she said. "You can't beat that."