From the outset of Missouri’s 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 23-25, 17-25) defeat at the hands of Texas A&M on Friday night, volleyball coach Wayne Kreklow said he knew his Tigers were unprepared.
“If there was ever an example of getting schooled, this was it,” he said. “They just schooled us. They put on a clinic out there at our expense.”
As players danced to music while stretching in pregame warm-ups, Kreklow said he could tell his squad was just not in the game.
“I don’t think we were really ever ready to go,” Kreklow said. “I thought right from the get-go we looked flat, lethargic. I don’t know if we were just overconfident or what the story was, but basically in a nutshell, they served us off the court, and we just simply weren’t prepared.”
The Aggies took a whopping 163 swings at the Tiger defense — 41 in the first set — and buried 74 of them, good for a .294 hitting percentage on the match. MU (11-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conferece) tallied only 55 digs on the night and only 47 kills in what was surely a downeer after upsetting SEC power Louisiana State University on Sunday in Baton Rouge, La.
“This hurts all of us,” junior setter Molly Kreklow said.
Texas A&M never trailed in the first set after getting to a quick 6-3 lead. That margin eventually swelled to 13-20, the largest lead of the set, after junior hitter Lisa Henning’s shot flew long out of a Missouri timeout.
The Tigers battled back to 18-21, but an Aggie run gave Texas A&M set point at 20-24. Angela Lowak’s roll shot fell in between a confused Missouri back line to give the Aggies the set.
The Tigers trailed early in the second as well, but righted the ship when sophomore hitter Taylor Simpson’s kill found the floor to tie the game at eight. Then Alisia Kastmo’s drive sailed out for the Aggies and sophomore blocker Whitney Little served an ace to put the Tigers up for good in the set.
Missouri hit a match-best .406 in the frame as Henning notched four more of her 20 kills and Simpson added three more. Henning’s powerful shot down the line from Kreklow gave her team the game and a tie in the match.
But the third and fourth sets were dismal for the Tigers, who — as Wayne Kreklow suggested — withered under the Aggies’ pressure.
“I don’t think we responded very well to adversity,” he said. “I think we just kind of folded up and crawled in a hole and died out there rather than really fight.”
Missouri hit only .157 in the two games combined with only 12 effective kills over 76 attacks. After trailing early in the third, the Tigers stole a share of the lead at 17-16 only to give it back down the stretch as Texas A&M mounted its offensive.
At 20-19, Tori Mellinger knocked down two straight kills, then Allie Sawatzky pegged a solo block to put the Aggies up two. The Tigers never again tied or reclaimed the lead and after Kastmo deposited the game-winner, fans started filing out of the Hearnes Center.
After a Henning attack error in the fourth gave Texas A&M a 14-7 lead, even more began to depart.
MU cut the lead to four, but after an Aggie timeout, sophomore defensive specialist Niki Collier’s dig of Kastmo’s spike dropped unattended, then an attack error on Little put the set and match out of reach for the Tigers. Heather Reynolds’s ace at match point ended the contest to the chagrin of captains Henning and Molly Kreklow.
“I think we beat ourselves more than they beat us,” Henning said after a night in which her team committed 20 total errors. “Don’t get me wrong, Texas A&M is a good team. I just think tomorrow is going to be focused on things we need to do to get better and things that we did wrong.”
