Tigers rally, pull off win over Baylor
Published Sept. 29, 2006
Down 26-21 in the third game, having already lost the second, the No. 19 Missouri volleyball team needed to dig deep and pull out a huge rally at the Hearnes Center on Wednesday. After running off five points in a row to tie, it dropped three of five to trail 29-28. Facing game point and the possibility of a potentially demoralizing loss, the Tigers' key weapons stepped up.
Senior outside hitter Jessica Vander Kooi had a thunderous kill to tie the game at 29, and junior outside hitter Na Yang's kill three points later gave MU the game point, which freshman Julianna Klein converted with one of her career-high 21 kills on the night.
Missouri (10-4, 4-1 Big 12) pulled out the game and the win against the Baylor Bears (13-3, 2-2), with a score of 30-23, 26-30, 32-30, 30-26.
Vander Kooi said she and her teammates gave all they could to gut out the game in the Tigers' match-changing rally.
"At that point, we all wanted to leave it all on the court," she said. "My focus was to put the ball down. Leave no doubts because we had to have that point."
In the second game, the Tigers had an even larger game point comeback, but they trailed 29-19 at the outset and came up three points short of tying. But coach Wayne Kreklow said not only did the rally save face in a game where the team hit .108 but that it also reflected well on the players' effort.
"The comeback in the second set showed character and poise to not give up," he said.
MU won despite allowing 16 aces, including 11 from freshman Taylor Barnes, who set both a Hearnes Center record for aces in one match and a record for a Missouri opponent.
But the Bears also hurt themselves by committing 17 service errors. Baylor coach Jim Barnes said his team always serves hard, so mistakes on the serve are common.
"We're an aggressive serving team," he said. "We're going to make errors. But our goal is knock teams out by serving tough."
The aces didn't help Baylor on defense, scoring just 52 defensive digs to MU's 73. Vander Kooi had 20 to go along with her 18 kills. Junior Tatum Ailes had 16 digs and senior Abbie Booth had 14.
The kills on offense were fairly spread out, with four players in double digits. Yang had 12 kills and senior Nicole Wilson added 15 to complement Klein and Vander Kooi.
Klein attributed her career-best night to her teammates, especially redshirt freshman setter Lei Wang.
"I just went up there and was swinging," Klein said. "Lei was setting really well for me tonight, and she just allowed me to not have to think and just go up and hit."
Kreklow said the Tigers need a total team effort to win matches the way they did Wednesday night.
"We're not good enough where we're able to rely on one or two people to carry the team," he said. "We need everyone to step up and play hard."