Missouri volleyball rolls past Baylor

The Tigers continue conference play against Nebraska on the road Saturday.

By Zach Dischiano

Published Oct. 19, 2010

The Missouri volleyball team improved to 13-7 overall and 5-5 in conference play with a 3-1 victory over Baylor on Saturday night.

Senior outside hitter Paola Ampudia led the Tigers with 23 kills on .211 hitting and senior outside hitter Julianna Klein tallied 13 kills on .244 hitting. Freshman setter Molly Kreklow added six kills of her own to go with her 43 assists. Senior libero Caitlyn Vann led the back row with 31 digs. Ampudia, Klein and Kreklow recorded double-doubles with 13, 11 and 10 kills, respectively.

The Tigers came out firing in the first set, scoring seven out of the first eight points. The Bears answered later in the set with a 5-0 run of their own. A time out called by coach Wayne Kreklow ended the Missouri scoring drought, and the Tigers proceeded to score nine out of the next 10 points to extend their lead to 19-10. The Bears fought to stay alive but were ultimately defeated in the first set, 25-18. It was a good start to the match for the Tigers, who were looking for revenge against the Bears, who beat them last year.

“We were talking about it yesterday,” Klein said. “We’re like, ‘Guys, we lost last year and it was a tough one and it was one we really needed so let’s come out tonight and really stick it to them and come out strong.’”

There wasn’t a clear cut favorite to win the second set early on, with no team leading by more than 3 through the first 35 points scored. Missouri was up 18-16 and looking to widen their lead as the set came to a close, and it turned to Ampudia who scored three out of the next five points for the Tigers and put the team up 23-16. The Bears were able to score four more points before the Tigers were finally able to put them away, 25-20.

The third set was also very tight with eight ties, four lead changes and no team gaining much ground on the other. Both teams had a chance to take the set at 20-20, but the Bears wanted it more because they scored five points to the Tigers’ two, ending the match, 25-22.

“It was just a little bit of everything,” coach Kreklow said. “We made some hitting errors, we forced some things that weren’t there hitting-wise, passing was off just a little bit, setting was off a little bit, it’s just a number of things. I don’t think we were serving quite as aggressively, and then when we did, we made some errors. That’s the game of volleyball, it can get away from you really, really, really fast.”

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set and never looked back. Ampudia continued to hit well late in the match with six kills in the final set to carry the Tigers to a 25-15 victory that ended the match.

“I think it was a really good game for us,” Ampudia said. “I think we stayed focused the whole time and I think we did a really good job.”

Missouri has a bye on Wednesday but will return to action next Saturday when it plays at Nebraska in hopes to gain revenge against the Huskers, who swept the Tigers earlier this season in Columbia.