Volleyball At Home On Wednesday Night

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Oklahoma volleyball team continues Big 12 play with a home match against Missouri on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Tigers travel to the Howard McCasland Field House with a 8-4 overall mark, which includes a 3-2 record in Big 12 play. The Sooners counter with a 8-5 season record and 0-5 effort in Big 12 play.

The first 250 fans through the door on Wednesday night will receive free OU foam fingers. The program is also going to honor university faculty and staff during evening. Faculty and staff will be treated to a discounted admission of $3.

Missouri enters the contest with a modest two-game winning streak. The Tigers swept No. 25 Colorado in Boulder last weekend. Sophomore Jessica Vander Kooi led the Tigers with 17 kills against the Buffaloes.

Vander Kooi, who beat out OU's O-Zone Live Video | Live Stats | Complete Match Notes

The number one option for Missouri for the past three years has been junior Shen Danru. Danru is fifth in the Big 12 with 4.21 kills per game.

While the MU offense is led by its outside hitters, head coach Susan Kreklow has to be excited about the consistent play of their middle blockers. The middle duo of Nicole Wilson and Lisa Boyd are among the Big 12's most lethal attackers. Wilson is third in the Big 12 with a .414 hitting percentage, while Boyd's .350 mark is good for ninth in conference.

Saturday the Sooners will make the daunting trip to No. 5 Nebraska. The match has been moved up to a 3 p.m. start time at the Nebraska Coliseum. The Huskers, who are a popular pick to win the national championship, are perfect in Big 12 play at 5-0 and stand at 10-1 on the year.

The Huskers have swept their way through conference action without losing a game in five matches. Only three of those games were decided by three points or less. Nebraska won its final two non-conference tune ups and is riding a 7-match winning streak into its mid-week tilt with Baylor.

NU leads the Big in three team statistical categories (blocks, digs and opponent hitting percentage) while ranking second in three other categories.

Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year Sarah Pavan leads powerhouse squad. Pavan was the consensus number one recruit in the country as a prepster and she has fulfilled the hype. She is second in the Big 12 with 4.92 kills per game while hitting at a .333 clip. She is also tallying 1.31 blocks and 1.67 digs per game on the defensive side.

After running a 6-2 system in 2003, sophomore setter Dani Busbom has taken the reigns. Busbom is averaging 13.39 assists per game as the floor general.

NU head coach John Cook has career record of 134-10 since taking over five seasons ago. The Huskers have won conference titles in three of his four seasons and were again the preseason favorite this year.

KEY MATCHUP
OU right side hitter Jessica Vander Kooi

Stats
Coats - 3.10 KPG, .331 %, 1.0 DPG, 1.04 BPG
Vander Kooi - 3.91 KPG, .261 %, 3.26 DPG, 0.86 BPG

Breakdown
Number one options Joanna Schmitt (OU) and Shen Danru (MU) are going to get their kills. The offense that is running more efficiently will be easy to pick out by the number of attempts for the right side attackers.

Coats has been more consistent than Vanderkooi at the net, indicated by her higher hitting percentage and blocks per game. Although Vander Kooi plays a different role. She is the number two option for Mizzou, while that desgination usually goes to Gabriela Tonon (left sider) for the Sooners. Vander Kooi has been an excellent passer and back row defender, which is indicated by her 3.26 digs per game. Whichever hitter has better match offenesively will put their team in great position.

VETERAN LEADERSHIP
The one bright spot for OU during its recent slide has been the steady improvement of senior Keri Coats and junior-transfer Gabriela Tonon.

Coats is leading the team with a .333 hitting percentage. She was among the top-10 in the Big 12 in the category as recently as Oct. 1, which marked the first time in the last five seasons that OU has had a player in the top-10 in hitting percentage after two weeks of Big 12 play. She has collected 10 or more kills in nine of the last 11 matches. She is also putting up a solid block that is stuffing 1.04 balls per game. Excluding service aces - since she doesn't normally serve this season - her numbers are up across the board from 2003.

Tonon, who transferred from Hutchinson Community College, was the last recruit to sign in 2003 but she has had the biggest impact. Tonon has topped double-digits in kills in eighth of the last matches, during which time she has averaged 3.37 per game. A comparison of her first four matches (UTPA Invitational) to the last eight outings, shows that Tonon has nearly double her production in kills (1.57 to 3.37) and digs (0.86 to 1.4). She has also bumped her hitting percentage up 35 points during that stretch.

The veteran duo is going to be relied upon heavily if the Sooners are going to make a run in the Big 12 conference. If the others follow their lead on the court, the win column will certainly benefit.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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