Volleyball Hits the Road Again

Sept. 28, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. - The No. 25 Oklahoma volleyball team will hit the road again this Saturday for a 6:30 p.m. match against the Missouri Tigers (7-6, 0-4 Big 12) in Columbia, Mo. Oklahoma enters the match with a perfect 5-0 conference record after rallying from a 2-0 deficit to edge Colorado, 3-2, Wednesday night in Norman.

MULTIMEDIA
Live stats of Saturday night's match will be available at SoonerSports.com as well as mutigers.cstv.com. Live video and audio of the match will be broadcast on Mizzou's All-Access for a fee. To register sign up at on Missouri's site.

SCOUTING MISSOURI
Missouri enters Saturday night's match with a 7-6 overall record and a 0-4 mark in Big 12 action. The Tigers will be aiming to snap their four-match losing streak and break Oklahoma's current five-match win streak.

Missouri opened the Big 12 season with a three-game loss to No. 7 Texas and played two close five-game matches against Kansas and Iowa State but couldn't pull out the victory. The Tigers' last conference match was against No. 18 Kansas State on Wednesday night as they fell in three games to the Wildcats. In Big 12 matches this season both squads are hitting at a similar percentage.

The Sooners own a slight advantage with a .199 clip compared to Missouri's .187. OU is recording 14.13 kills per game in Big 12 play while Missouri is recording 13.19 kills per game MU's offensive leader is Na Yang, who is averaging 3.88 kills per game while Megan Wilson and Weiwen Wang follow her as each average 2.69 kills per game.

Defensively, the Tigers own the advantage in digs with 14.62 digs per game in Big 12 play compared to OU's 14.43. Libero Tatum Ailes is leading the team with her 3.94 digs per game. At the net, Missouri is averaging 2.12 blocks per game compared to OU's 2.33 per game. Amanda Hantouli is the top blocker for Mizzou as she is recording 1.00 blocks per game while OU's top blocker, Anna Stadel, is averaging 1.17 blocks per game.

PLAYER TO WATCH: BRIDGET LAPLANTE
Sophomore Bridget Laplante, one of only two returning starters from last year's squad, was clutch in OU's five-game match against Colorado. The outside hitter recorded four kills and collected three digs in OU's fifth game against the Buffs to lead OU to victory. Laplante owns eight double-doubles on the year and is second on the squad with 3.62 KPG and 3.04 DPG.

LAST TIME THEY MET
The Sooners swept the Tigers last season in the two matches. Oklahoma played the first game of the series at home with the Sooners sweeping then-ranked No. 12 Missouri by scores of 30-18, 30-18, 30-26.

The two squads met again in Columbia at the end of the season. The close five-game match saw the Sooners come out on top, 3-2 (30-25, 27-30, 32-30, 20-30, 19-17).

The Sooners recorded a .290 hitting percentage in the two combined matches behind former Sooner Joanna Schmitt who averaged 5.12 kills per game while the Sooner defense out blocked Missouri 25 to 16 in the combined matches.

SERIES RECORDS
Oklahoma leads the all-time series between the teams, 34-26. Prior to OU's two victories last season the Tigers owned a 12-match winning streak against Oklahoma. Since the beginning of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, MU has dominated the series 20-8.

ANOTHER OU RALLY BEATS COLORADO, 3-2
For the third straight match Oklahoma found itself in a hole as it trailed Colorado Wednesday night, 0-2. However, the Sooners claimed the next three straight games to win the match, 3-2 (21-30, 16-30, 30-18, 30-27, 15-10). Bridget Laplante (18 kills, 17 digs) and Mariana Blum (10 kills, 11 digs) each notched double-doubles in the match while the OU defense recorded a season-high 14 team blocks.

BEST BIG 12 START EVER
The Sooners are off to their best Big 12 start in school history with a 5-0 start. Oklahoma has never opened the Big 12 Conference with more than two straight wins. Currently, Oklahoma (5-0) and top-ranked Nebraska (4-0) 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 four of their five league matches. All four 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.

For the third time this conference season, Oklahoma fell behind by a 2-0 deficit but rallied back to beat Colorado, 3-2.

UP NEXT
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 three five-game matches this season and won all of them. Two of the three matches were against top-25 teams on the road as Oklahoma claimed the match with significant five-game wins. Since 2006, the Sooners are 10-2 in five-game matches.

HOME SWEET HOME Dating back to last season, the Sooners own a 14-match home 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. T

he Sooners own a 12-2 overall record and a perfect 5-0 Big 12 mark after knocking off No. 16 Kansas State, 3-2, and defeating Baylor, 3-1, last week and besting Colorado, 3-2, on Wednesday night. 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

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