Missouri volleyball swept away by Texas

The Tigers had their lowest hitting percentage and kill total of 2009.

By Patrick Hunley

Published Nov. 10, 2009

In its worst hitting performance of the season, the Missouri volleyball team (15-11, 6-8 Big 12) lost to the No. 2 Texas Longhorns (19-1, 14-1 Big 12) in three sets (25-21, 25-8, 25-24) Saturday at the Hearnes Center.

The Tigers posted their lowest hitting percentage (.075) and kill total (26) of the season and had more errors than kills through the first two sets. Junior outside hitter Paola Ampudia, who had led the Tigers in kills in the previous nine matches, finished with a negative hitting percentage.

"We were trying to overplay and do too much and not just do our jobs," junior middle blocker Catie Wilson said. "Everyone was trying to make big plays when you don't need to make big plays."

In the first set, the Longhorns never put together a dominant run to pull away, but they consistently went on short point streaks whenever the Tigers threatened their lead and were ahead almost the entire set.

After taking a 4-3 lead to start the second set, the Longhorns followed with a 10-2 run and established control. The Tigers notched only four kills compared to 10 errors in their lowest single-set point total of the season.

"It's a game of serving and passing," senior setter Lei Wang-Francisco said. "If we serve tough, we can stop their offense. At the same time, if we pass, we can run our offense. We were weak about that in the second set."

Texas went up 7-1 in the third set, but the Tigers finally put things together, going on a 6-1 run at one point and climbing within two points of the lead.

After Texas went up 24-20, the Tigers won three straight match points before Texas called timeout to set up star senior outside hitter Destinee Hooker for the final kill. Hooker led the match with 17 kills and posted a .400 hitting percentage.

"It's hard when you play a team that has that much talent and is that good, when they find something that works, find a matchup to take advantage of and you can't seem to stop it," coach Wayne Kreklow said.

Wilson wasn't nearly as involved in the offense as usual, posting only one kill in the whole match after averaging 2.3 kills per set through the team's first 25 matches.

"They were trying to use me as a distraction to hold the middle blocker so our outsides could get more one-on-one swings," Wilson said.

Kreklow said several players, including Wilson, Ampudia, junior libero Caitlyn Vann and junior outside hitter Julianna Klein have dealt with injuries or illness in recent days.

The Tigers are still looking to bolster their NCAA Tournament resume and only have seven matches left to do so.

Kreklow said the loss to Texas wouldn't hurt their case.

"Winning against a team like Texas would be a huge plus," Kreklow said. "Losing to a team like Texas isn't really going to hurt you. We just have to focus on the next stretch and try to get some wins against the midlevel teams in our conference."