MU volleyball defeats Missouri State

The Missouri volleyball team defeated Missouri State 30-27, 30-18, 30-26 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at Hearnes Center in front of 6,294 people, the second largest crowd in MU volleyball history.

“I am very pleased with our players tonight,” Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow said. “Missouri State is an excellent volleyball club. They are very solid, they have a lot of good players over there, and they came in here really on a roll…We knew coming in here we were going to have our hands full and have to play well.”

The Bears had won 10 straight matches coming into Friday’s match.

The Tigers used a balance hitting attack and strong blocking to defeat the Bears. The team had four players with double-digit kills and six players had a block.

Lindsey Hunter, MU’s senior setter, said the Tigers succeeded because of persistent hitting.

“(The Bears) were digging a lot of balls,” Hunter said. “But our players kept on swinging.”

MU’s 13 attacking errors was a team NCAA tournament low, and its .364 hitting percentage was a tournament high for the team.

Game Two was a turning point for the Tigers, who didn’t look as strong in the first game, due to tournament jitters.

MU had a seven-point run in middle of Game 2 and led by as many as 11 points.

“I think we were passing a little bit better than we were in Game One,” Hunter said. “Our defense was awesome and we were just getting the little balls up, the things that switch momentum.”

Jessica Vander Kooi and Shen Danru led the team with 13 kills each, while Tatum Ailes had a team-high 13 digs.

The Tigers will play Arkansas at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Hearnes.

Arkansas beat St. Mary’s 30-27, 30-17, 30-21 before the Tigers’ match to advance to the second round.

MU beat Arkansas last year in the first round of the tournament 30-28, 30-21, 25-30, 30-26 at Hearnes.

Despite this, players are not looking past the Razorbacks.

“We have the familiarity with them, but we can’t rely on that,” Vander Kooi, a junior outside hitter said. “We can’t say ‘We beat them last year, so we have them this year.’ There is not a game right now, even one game into the tournament, where you can relax one bit. Anything can happen on any given night and we have to be prepared for anything that will happen.”