Volleyball hits the beach
Published Aug. 25, 2006
Before diving into a brutal early season schedule, including matches against two teams ranked in the top six in America, the Missouri volleyball team headed to Long Beach, Calif., for its first three regular season games this weekend.
The women will face Alabama State and the tournament's host Long Beach State this evening. Then they will take on Villanova Saturday afternoon before returning to Columbia. It's the first test for the No. 13 team before its home opener on Tuesday against Arkansas-Little Rock.
Although Alabama State and Villanova were mediocre last season, the Long Beach State 49ers won the Big West Conference and nearly cracked the Top 25 preseason poll. Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow said the 49ers game is the biggest test of the weekend.
"They're the class of the field," he said after practice Wednesday at the Hearnes Center. "They're not in the Top 25, but they have that kind of talent, and I'd bet that they'll be a Top 20 team by season's end."
Missouri lost three starters to graduation from last year's Elite Eight team, and Kreklow said he will use this trip to see where everyone, namely his five freshmen, fit on the team.
"Right now, we're just trying to find out what we have," Kreklow said. "We have a lot of new faces. I want to see what our strengths and weaknesses are."
Senior defensive specialist Abbie Booth, one of three seniors on this year's team, said this weekend's priority is for everyone to get comfortable with each other. It will be the first road trip the 2006 team has taken together.
"We need to improve and get chemistry on and off the court first," Booth said. "It's a new season, and this is a great chance for us to figure out what we have as a team."
Junior libero Tatum Ailes wasn't worried about the team's freshmen needing time to adjust. In fact, three of the freshmen — Lei Wang, Amanda Hantouli and Megan Wilson — were red-shirted last year. Julianna Klein and Brittney Herzog are the only true freshmen on this year's team.
"These girls aren't new," Ailes said of the red-shirts. "These girls have been here a year, they've practiced with us, they've done everything but play in the games. So it's basically their second season already."
Kreklow said he isn't too concerned with the win-loss record from this weekend.
"We can't get overly concerned about wins and losses and not worry about plays that we have to make in the games," Kreklow said. "I would ideally like to come back with three wins, but that likely won't happen. If we come back 1-2 or 0-3, we won't sound the panic button, we'll just know what we have to work on."