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No. 10 Tiger Volleyball Opens Conference Season With Sweep of Iowa State

Booth records a career-high six service aces, Tigers go to 7-0

Sept. 14, 2005

Box Score |  Photo Gallery

Media Coverage:
MissouriNet (with audio) | St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
Columbia Missourian

The 10th-ranked Mizzou women's volleyball team opened their Big 12 season on Wednesday at home with a sweep of Iowa State, improving to 7-0 on the early season. The Tigers recorded their 17th-consective match win against the Cyclones, helped by 11-team service aces and a .417 hitting percentage in the final two games. Abbie Booth (Kansas City, Mo.) served a career-high six aces on the night and Shen Danru and Nicole Wilson scored 12 kills apiece.

The Tigers (7-0, 1-0) shut-out the Cyclones (6-5, 0-1), 30-20, 30-24, and 30-16.

In addition to Booth's serving and Danru and Wilson's hitting, senior Lindsey Hunter had a team-high, season-high four total blocks along with 41 assists. Sophomore Tatum Ailes recorded 12 digs, a match-high.

In the first game, the Cyclones came out of the gate with a strong resiliency against the Tiger attack. It was frustrating for both teams as defensive intimidation on both sides of the net led to many unforced errors in both serves and attacks. The Tigers did grab an early 12-8 lead, but was stymied by a Cyclone four-point run that involved three block assists and a kill from Iowa State sophomore Erin Boeve. After the tied score at 12 apiece, the Tigers scored 12 of the next 15 points to make the score 24-15, working off of Iowa State attack errors and two Tiger service aces. In what would be best described as a "scappy" type of game, the Tigers managed only a .175 hitting percentage. The Cyclones had 12 attack errors in the frame and could only counter with eight kills, resulting in a -.105 percentage.

Game two started similarly to the one before, as the score was tied 11-11 as a result of eight errors of all types on both sides of the net. Sophomore Abbie Booth took the serve and helped the Tigers grab a 16-11 lead off of three consecutive service aces. The Cyclones came back with four more points to pull within one (16-15). Both teams started to finally find their legs, as the teams traded kills for the next eight points. With the Tigers still with a narrow lead at 22-20, junior Nicole Wilson took charge. Wilson slammed four kills in the next six rallys to help the Tigers to a 26-22 lead. Wilson followed with a service ace and a kill by Danru made the score 28-22. The Tigers tallied a match-high 19 kills in the period to win 30-24.

After two frustrating game-starts, the Tigers decided to pull into high gear, leading off the third frame with a 5-0 run. Mizzou continued the assault with a 12-7 run as a result of nine kills (three coming from Wilson), and three more Booth aces to make the score 19-7. The Tigers continued with kill-after-kill to win 30-16. In a more offensively driven game, the Tigers hit .469, committing only three errors.

The Tigers will continue conference play on Friday night when they visit No. 15 Texas A&M (7-3), who lost to Kansas in Lawrence in a three-game sweep earlier tonight.

For more info on Mizzou volleyball, visit mutigers.com.

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