No. 25 Volleyball Hosts Buffs Wednesday

Sept. 25, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. - Following its week-long road trip, the No. 25 Oklahoma volleyball team (11-2, 4-0 Big 12) will return to the McCasland Field House this Wednesday with its perfect Big 12 record. The Sooners will host the Colorado Buffaloes (5-6, 0-3 Big 12) at 7 p.m. inside the Howard McCasland Field House.

LIVE STATS & VIDEO
Live stats will be available at SoonerSports.com and All Access viewers will be able to watch the game live.

PROMOTIONS & TICKETS
Wednesday night will feature $.50 Hot Dog Night. Admission will be $7 for adults and $5 for children. All OU students are admitted free with an OU ID.

SCOUTING COLORADO
Both squads enter Wednesday night's match with different goals. The Sooners will be looking to keep their conference record perfect and extend it to 5-0 while the Buffs will be aiming for their first Big 12 win of the season after starting out 0-3 in conference play.

Colorado, who owns a 5-6 overall mark, has dropped three close five-game matches to start the Big 12 season. CU lost to Texas Tech on the road and followed that with home losses against Baylor and No. 16 Kansas State. The Buffs have shown their potential as they topped then-No. 11 Cal at the start of the season.

Defensively, the Buffs rank 10th in the conference with 13.93 digs per game in Big 12 matches and rank last in the league with 2.07 blocks per game. However, CU is holding its Big 12 opponents to a .214 clip, which ranks fourth in the conference. In addition, CU's libero Callie Webster is one of the top in the conference as she is collecting 4.73 digs per game (second in the league).

Offensively, the squad owns a .181 hitting percentage in conference play while Oklahoma is hitting at a .220 clip in Big 12 action. Alex Buth is one of Colorado's top options on offense as she is averaging 3.67 kills per game on a team-best .345 clip and is coming off a strong weekend where she pounded a match-high 21 kills against Kansas State. In addition, Mallori Gibson has been exceptional in Big 12 action as she ranks third in the conference with 4.09 kills per game.

LAST TIME THEY MET
Both matches between the two squads last season went to five games with the Sooners coming out on top on both occasions. Oklahoma faced Colorado first in Boulder last season and pulled out the five-game win (22-30, 30-18, 30-21, 23-30, 15-6). The Sooners followed that with another five-game win over Colorado in Norman (30-22, 29-31, 30-32, 30-24, 15-5). Outside hitter Sarah Weiland was the most consistent hitter for OU in the two-game series against the Buffs as she averaged 2.60 kills per game on a .370 hitting percentage while adding 1.40 blocks per game.

SERIES RECORDS
Colorado leads the all-time series between the teams, 33-12, but Oklahoma has claimed the last two against Colorado. Since the beginning of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, CU has dominated the series 17-4.

OU STAYS PERFECT WITH 3-1 WIN OVER BAYLOR
For the second straight match the Sooners battled back from an 0-1 deficit to remain perfect in Big 12 play as they topped Baylor, 3-1 (27-30, 30-26, 30-22, 30-23), in Waco last Saturday. Five different Sooners recorded double-digit kills with Mariana Blum leading the way with a match-high 20 kills. Middle blockers Francie Ekwerekwu and Anna Stadel added four block assists each for the defense while Hannah Sharp and Bridget Laplante added 15 digs each.

BEST BIG 12 START EVER
The Sooners are off to their best Big 12 start in school history with a 4-0 start. Oklahoma has never opened the Big 12 Conference with more than two straight wins. Currently, Oklahoma (4-0) and top-ranked Nebraska (3-0) are the only teams in the league with a perfect Big 12 record.

THE COMEBACK KIDS
Oklahoma has been at its best during the Big 12 season when trailing. The Sooners have trailed after the first game in three of its four league matches. All three times, Oklahoma came back to win. OU opened the conference season against then-No. 25 Texas A&M and was trailing 0-2 before coming back to win three straight and claim the match on the road. The Sooners found themselves in a similar situation against a ranked opponent on the road as they trailed No. 16 Kansas State after dropping the first game 30-16. However, Oklahoma didn't let up as it took the next game and went on to win 3-2 in front of over 1,000 fans at Kansas State. Oklahoma fell into a 1-0 hole against Baylor in Waco, but rallied back to win 3-1.

UP NEXT
Oklahoma will hit the road again this Saturday, Sept. 29 as it heads to Columbia, Mo., to take on the Tigers at 6:30 p.m. Oklahoma will step out of conference play next Wednesday, Oct. 3 as it travels to Fort Worth, Texas to take on the TCU Horned Frogs at 7 p.m. The Sooners will return home the following Saturday for an Oct. 6 meeting against Iowa State at 7 p.m.

FIVE-GAME SUCCESS
The Sooners have been very successful in five-game matches. Oklahoma has played two five-game matches this season and has won both by scores of 15-13. Both matches were against top-25 teams on the road as Oklahoma claimed the match with significant five-game wins. Since 2006, the Sooners are 8-2 in five-game matches.

HOME SWEET HOME Dating back to last season, the Sooners own a 13-match win streak at the McCasland Field House. It marks the longest home win streak in the Big 12 era.

MOVING BACK INTO TOP-25
After a three-week drought, the Sooners returned to the national rankings as they came in at No. 25 in the AVCA Coaches Poll released Sept. 24. The Sooners own an 11-2 overall record and a perfect 4-0 Big 12 mark after knocking off No. 16 Kansas State, 3-2, and defeating Baylor, 3-1, last week.

OU's only losses this season have been to No. 15 San Diego and Middle Tennessee, who is the first team receiving votes in the poll this week.

Oklahoma was ranked No. 22 in the preseason poll and moved to No. 21 in the Aug. 27 poll before falling out. The Sooners had been ranked in the top 25 for 13 weeks dating back to last season before falling out of the poll earlier this season. It marked the longest stretch in school history.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

No. 25 Volleyball Hosts Buffs Wednesday

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