Oct. 28, 2009

Box Score |  Notes |  Photo Gallery 

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou junior Paola Ampudia (Cali, Colombia) recorded 18 kills as the Tiger volleyball team defeated Kansas State, 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-18) Wednesday night (Oct. 28) at the Hearnes Center. The win was the Tigers' second straight and evened their record in Big 12 play at 6-6. Mizzou is 14-9 overall this season. Ampudia now has 69 kills on .285 hitting over her last three matches.

Junior Catie Wilson (Omaha, Neb.) added nine kills on .389 hitting and junior Rosa Medrano (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) had eight on .438 hitting as the Tigers produced an efficient win. Mizzou hit .333 as a team - its second-best clip during Big 12 play - and held K-State to an average of just .215. Amanda Hantouli (Omaha, Neb.) also added a season-best seven kills on .385 hitting. Ampudia had two of the four total service aces for the Tigers, who forced the Wildcats to commit four service errors and did not allow an ace.

"That was a good home win for us," Mizzou head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "We played well enough to come away with a win. Kansas State is a very deceiving team and if you let them get into a rhythm, you're in trouble. I think we did a good job of keeping them from running their offense as well as they could have."

As a team, Mizzou out-blocked K-State 12.0-4.0. A pair of Tigers reached double figures in digs, as junior libero Caitlyn Vann (Muncie, Ind.) posted 13 while sophomore Annie Lopez (St. Louis, Mo.) added a season-best 12. Senior setter Lei Wang-Francisco (Shanghai, China) quarterbacked the Tiger attack, passing out 43 assists - a three-set season-high - while adding eight digs. Junior outside hitter Julianna Klein (Keota, Iowa) returned from a three-match hiatus and posted four kills on .500 hitting.

Junior middle blocker Weiwen Wang (Nanjing, China) put the Tigers on the board with the team's first kill. Medrano then posted a kill to give Mizzou a 2-1 lead. Neither was able to sustain momentum from there until Ampudia broke a 9-9 tie with a kill to ignite a 6-2 Tiger run. Following a Wildcat timeout, K-State won six of the next eight points before Kreklow called for time with the score tied at 17. A service error gave Mizzou a one-point lead, but K-State responded to even the set again at 18. Medrano and senior middle blocker Amanda Hantouli (Omaha, Neb.) put the Tigers ahead with a block and Mizzou won six of the next nine points to close the set, punctuated by a kill from Wilson. Ampudia led Mizzou with five kills and a service ace in the frame, while Wilson added four kills on .500 hitting.

K-State won the first point of the second set on hitting error by Ampudia, but Wang-Francisco posted a kill and Hantouli and Wang combined on a block to give Mizzou a 2-1 lead. Ampudia posted two more kills and Hantouli added one to put the Tigers ahead, 5-3. But the Wildcats went on a 7-5 run to tie the set at 10. Hantouli then put Mizzou back in front with a kill, but K-State won the next two to take the lead. Kreklow called a timeout at 11-12 and Wang responded with a kill to tie the score again. After a Wildcat kill, Hantouli posted a kill and Mizzou retook the lead on a K-State error. The Wildcats evened the set again, but Wilson and Medrano posted back-to-back kills to give the Tigers a 16-14 lead. K-State closed to within one, but Wilson scored again and the Wildcats committed an attack error to give Mizzou a three-point edge.

Following a K-State timeout, the Wildcats posted a kill and then committed a net violation to put the Tigers up 19-16. Wilson served an ace to push the lead to four and K-State called for another break. K-State won three of five coming out of the timeout, but Ampudia gave the Tigers a 23-19 edge with her 10th kill of the match and closed the second set with another to give Mizzou a two-frame lead. Ampudia had six kills in the set to lead the Tigers, while Medrano had three and Wilson added two. As a team, Mizzou hit .375 in the second set.

Ampudia picked up where she left off, posting a kill on the first point after intermission. Vann later served an ace and won three straight points on her serve to give Mizzou a 6-2 lead. K-State responded with an 8-5 run to pull within one before Ampudia posted another kill. A Wildcat service error increased Mizzou's lead to two at 13-11 and Medrano answered a K-State kill with one of her own. The Wildcats later committed a net violation and an attack error to push Mizzou's edge to four at 17-13. K-State responded by winning three of the next five points, but Ampudia and Medrano posted consecutive kills to push the Tigers' lead to five before the Wildcats called for time at 21-16. Ampudia's 17th kill later gave Mizzou a 23-18 lead, and the Wildcats committed a hitting error to set up match point for the Tigers. Ampudia ended the match with ace, just as she did Saturday at Kansas.

The Tigers return to the court Saturday (Oct. 31), when they will step out of conference play for the final time in 2009 as they host SIU Edwardsville at 6:30 p.m. in the Hearnes Center. For all the latest updates on Mizzou volleyball, please visit mutigers.com.