Homecoming success continued for Missouri athletics as the MU volleyball team defeated Texas Tech. 3-1 Saturday.
Sophomore outside hitter Lisa Henning led the Tigers with 22 kills for the night, marking her fifth 20-plus kill match in her last six outings.
“She’s taking a lot of swings and she’s shouldering a lot of the offensive burden right now,” coach Wayne Kreklow said. “Lisa made some big swings out there for us tonight in games three and four.”
Freshman middle blocker Whitney Little did a little bit of everything on the court, making her presence on the net known with timely blocks and nine kills.
“Whit’s working really hard,” Kreklow said. “She’s a pretty heads-up, savvy player. Tonight, her numbers were really solid. She’s doing really good job with blocking and with small balls. She didn’t do a lot that was just really noticeable, but yet it was very important.”
The story of the night for the Tigers was the mid-game Texas Tech. rallies that sparked close scores. Missouri would pull ahead at the beginning in every set, only to have the Red Raiders push themselves back into the game.
“I think it was just a bunch of hitting errors,” Kreklow said. “Errors, and that their outside hitters were blasting balls through our block.”
Kreklow said the serving game seemed to be the key to success, seeing as the kill and error numbers for both teams were nearly identical.
“When I look back at it, we had a phenomenal serving night,” Kreklow said. “I mean, to have 10 aces and just three errors is just phenomenal. That was probably the difference in the game. What I saw was that our runs would come off of our serve and their runs were coming off of their hitting errors.”
Freshman outside hitter Katie O’Brien also had a big night, pounding out 10 kills while mixing in a few rolls, shots and tips.
From a defensive standpoint, the Tigers totaled 14 blocks, just missing their season-high by one. Four Tigers finished the match with at least four blocks, while senior libero Priscilla Armendariz added 17 digs.
The victory also marked something more that decent stats. It was the first time in nearly a month that the team won two matches in a row.
“This will definitely bring us a lot of confidence,” Henning said. “Since we haven’t been winning that much lately, I think it just took one win to show us that we can do it. I think this one really helped us because Texas Tech. is a really good team.”
The Tigers are now 16-7 on the season and 3-4 in Big 12 Conference play. They will face off against Central Arkansas in their last non-conference match-up at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Hearnes Center.
