No. 1 Huskers a big foe

There are many reasons why tonight’s match is the biggest of the year for Missouri’s volleyball team.

Their opponent is No. 1 Nebraska, who is 15-0 and 7-0 in Big 12 play.

The match is a battle between the Big 12’s first-place Cornhuskers and second-place Tigers, who are 7-1 in league play. A win for the No. 15 Tigers would put them in sole possession of first place.

Several television stations in the area, including KZOU in Columbia, MetroSports in Kansas City, and Fox Sports Network Midwest are televising the match live.

And, perhaps most significantly, there are four players from the state of Nebraska on the Tiger’s roster of 10, more than any other state, including Missouri.

For sisters and Lincoln natives Nicole Wilson and Megan Wilson, Bellevue native Tatum Ailes, and Omaha native Amanda Hantouli, tonight’s match, set for 6:30 at Hearnes Center, is extra special. It is a chance to prove themselves to their home state school which chose not to recruit them.

“There’s a feeling like, ‘That’s what you get for not picking me,’” Megan Wilson said. “There’s a little bit of extra motivation.”

Nicole Wilson said her family was full of Huskers fans. She said she was a big fan of Nebraska football growing up, but also went to many volleyball matches.

“I remember going to games when they won the championship three years in a row,” she said. “I remember being a huge fan of it and loving to go and watch. It’s definitely in the family.

“Well,” she said, after a brief hesitation, “I can’t say that anymore, but it used to be.”

Both Ailes and Hantouli say they grew up with dreams of playing in Huskers’ red.

“Ever since third to eighth grade, it was like, ‘Oh, I want to play for Nebraska,’” Hantouli said. “Because it’s every little girl’s dream to play for Nebraska.”

They both, however, say they are happy to be playing on the other side of the net tonight.

“God has a plan for everyone and my plan wasn’t to play for Nebraska,” Ailes said. “It was to play for Missouri.” The Tigers enter the match as an underdog. Nebraska has won 21 straight matches in Columbia, with Missouri’s last home-court win coming in 1982. The Huskers are 61-3 all-time against the Tigers.

Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow said a win tonight would take a huge performance from his team.

“We pretty much have to do everything right,” he said.

Last year’s Missouri-Nebraska match at Hearnes Center brought in a school record 7,298 fans, and another large crowd is expected tonight. Fans can expect to see one change when they show up tonight, though. After numerous complaints from opponents that the Missouri student section was too rowdy, the chairs that provided student seating on the floor of Hearnes Center have been taken out.

Kreklow, however, doesn’t feel it will hurt the atmosphere.

“Really, what was happening is that the number of people down there were outgrowing the space we had for them,” he said. “With that many people down there we felt like we could get the desired result without having them so close.”

Nicole Wilson said she looks back at when the Tigers beat Nebraska in Lincoln in 2003, her freshman year, as one of the best moments of her career.

“It was my first year down here and a bunch of people were like, ‘You’ll never beat Nebraska,’” the senior middle blocker said. “So to be able to go back and say, ‘Ha, I did beat you guys,’ is always good.”

Tonight is Wilson’s last opportunity to beat Nebraska in Columbia, a feat she says would be even more special.

“It’s one of the things we still haven’t done in my years here,” she said. “It’d be awesome.”