Volleyball handles SIU Edwardsville

Coach Wayne Kreklow says there's still room to improve

By Ross Taylor

Published Sept. 29, 2008

The Missouri volleyball team wrapped up non-conference play at home Saturday with an easy victory over Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

The Tigers swept the Cougars 25-8, 25-21, 25-22, in front of 1,125 people at the Hearnes Center.

Although it was one of the team's dominating victories, coach Wayne Kreklow still found room for improvement.

"I was really pleased with the way we came out in game one. We were really focused and intense," Kreklow said. "But as the match went on, the slower we got. This team has a real problem with consistency and concentration over a period of time."

Early in the match, Missouri (7-6, 1-2 Big 12) could do no wrong. In the first five minutes, Missouri built a 10-0 lead on a foundation of strong serving from junior Megan Wilson and several kills from junior Amanda Hantouli and sophomore Julianna Klein.

The state of affairs for the SIU-Edwardsville squad (2-6) was most evident during a Klein serve. It appeared to be going wide, but the ball struck a defender from the opposing team as she attempted to get out of the way. On the very next serve, Klein landed the ball right on the baseline, needing no outside help for her second consecutive ace.

Missouri led wire-to-wire and had 14 kills and only two errors en route to a first-set win.

"We came out really fired up," Klein said. "Our whole thing that we're working on right now is being able to concentrate out there and play our game. And we really executed that."

The match took a different tone in the second set. After a first set that featured no ties or lead changes, SIU-Edwardsville was able to press Missouri.

The second set had three lead changes and nine ties. With the two teams tied at 14, Missouri then outscored the visiting team 11-7 the rest of the way to win the set, 25-21.

On paper, the matchup between Missouri's offense and SIU-Edwardsville's defense didn't look like the Tigers would have much of an advantage. In their first seven matches, the Cougars held opponents to a .196 hitting percentage. But Sunday, Missouri hit .310 to the Cougars' .112 hitting percentage.

The match featured a stellar offensive evening from Hantouli, who finished with nine kills and one error but no feel for her numbers.

"I actually didn't know that," Hantouli said after being read her statistics.

The win caps Missouri's non-conference record at 6-4. The record is par for the course, as far as Kreklow is concerned, since Missouri averaged six non-conference wins each year in the past four seasons.

Attention now turns to Big 12 play, which continues Wednesday against Iowa State at the Hearnes Center.

"In all honesty, it's a little bit comforting just because, besides the new freshmen, we all know the styles we're going to see from each team," Hantouli said of conference play. "Even though we have really strong teams in our conference, we have an idea of what's coming at us, which I think is always a little bit comforting."

Yet, for Kreklow, the performance against the team from Edwardsville showed that his players still have a way to go as Big 12 play heats up.

"We're going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight," he said.