Volleyball team answers off-season questions

By Ross Taylor

Published Aug. 23, 2008

The Missouri volleyball team finished the off-season with several question marks. Friday night, the public had a first look at the answers.

The team played its annual Black and Gold match, a three-set intra-squad exhibition, Friday evening in front of a crowd of 1,475. The match gave coach Wayne Kreklow a chance to evaluate his squad after an off-season of preaching "the little things."

"I could go right down player-by-player, not big things, but just little things that can help them be better," Kreklow said. "An example, (junior setter) Lei (Wang) has always done a good job setting, she was just going to focus a little bit more on her blocking. Everybody had their own little thing they were trying to focus on during the course of the off-season."

Sophomore outside hitter Julianna Klein returns in 2008 after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament Sept. 7 last year. Her recovery becomes one of the team's biggest story lines entering the season, as she'll be relied on heavily to replace the production of now-graduated Na Yang.

Yang's 522 kills in 2007 set a single-season MU record and accounted for a large portion of the Tiger's offense. However, Klein refuses to dwell on Yang's departure.

"People focus too much on what we've lost instead of thinking about what we're gaining right now," Klein said. "Everybody's stepping it up a little extra."

The Black and Gold game showed what the Tigers are gaining, as players and coaches both raved about the off-season contributions of the team's five freshmen.

Freshman defensive specialists Priscilla Armendariz and Annie Lopez garnered a lot of post-match praise, but the newcomer of the night was 6-3 freshman middle blocker Brittany Brimmage, who displayed her raw athleticism and finished with 13 kills.

"She just does a lot of things that you can't teach," Kreklow said. "I can't teach somebody to have good size and agility and jump. She's going to catch on fast."

The biggest void in the lineup, though, may be the one left by the graduation of libero Tatum Ailes, MU’s all-time leader in digs. Caitlyn Vann, a sophomore from Muncie, Ind., seems the heir apparent.

Vann, referenced by her coaches as the "Energizer bunny" and "the spark plug," is no stranger to being relied upon for her defense. Vann's résumé boasts 15 career 10-dig matches, including a 24-dig match on the road against Ole Miss last August.

But despite her defensive prowess, Vann is extolled most by her coaches for her competitiveness and her status as a "gamer."

"I've always been that way," Vann said. "If there's a winner or a loser, I want to be that winner."

Missouri, coming off of eight-consecutive winning seasons and NCAA tournament berths, was recently picked fifth in the Big 12 in the preseason coaches' poll. The Tigers officially open the season Friday at the BYU Molten Classic in Provo, Utah.

"Every day we're in the locker room talking like 'We can't wait to get out on the road,'" Klein said. "We're just so excited to be out there against good competition. We're ready to show the country what we're made of."