Volleyball wins home opener
Published Sept. 1, 2006
During the volleyball home opener Tuesday, senior outside hitter Jessica Vander Kooi led by example.
Leading 29-28 in the first set, coach Wayne Kreklow called a timeout and inserted Vander Kooi into the lineup, who immediately delivered a kill to win a hard-fought first set for MU. She led the team with 20 kills as the Tigers swept University of Arkansas-Little Rock 30-28, 30-21, 30-22. It was the highest attendance for a non-conference regular season game in the history of the program with 1,855 people.
After the game, Kreklow said Vander Kooi was a nice constant on a team full of turnover.
"Jessica's so versatile, and she does so many things," Kreklow said. "Having someone like that on our team is invaluable. She's like our security blanket."
After the first set in which MU led nearly the entire way but couldn't separate itself from UALR, MU jumped out to leads of 12-6 and 16-9 and won the second set 30-21. Senior defensive specialist Abbie Booth said the Tigers got much more comfortable later in the match.
"The first set was very rocky," she said. "But as the match progressed, we got so much better."
In the third set, UALR got off to a fast start, winning four points in a row to lead 6-2. But the Tigers rallied, winning 13 of the next 19 points to lead 15-12, which they never lost. MU finally put the match away when redshirt freshman opposite side hitter Megan Wilson killed a ball on the right side to win the set 30-22 and give the Tigers the sweep.
Kreklow said even though he was pleased with the win, he thought the team played better last Saturday against Villanova. MU had a .221 hitting percentage in the match, which dwarfed UALR's .098, but Kreklow said that number wouldn't be good enough during Big 12 play.
"Right now we're searching for the right offensive combinations," he said. ".221's not bad, but we've been at .260 or .270. That's the type of hitting percentage winning teams are going to have and that's where we need to get to."
Vander Kooi said the team has to get better at the net to improve.
"If we become bigger at the net, then we're going to be a better team all around," she said.
The Tigers now go on a brutal six-game road trip starting today at the Shamrock Invitational in South Bend, Ind. After matches with Idaho and Valparaiso, MU will play three nationally ranked teams in a row: No. 21 Notre Dame Saturday, No. 2 Penn State on Sept. 7 in Austin, Texas and No. 6 Santa Clara the next day, also in Austin.
Kreklow said that in order to have a successful road trip, the team would have to shore up a lot of small problems.