Missouri State’s volleyball team split a pair of matches Saturday at Colorado State University’s Hilton Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., losing to Texas A&M in the first match by a 30-19, 30-26, 30-25 score before bouncing back to win a five-game thriller over Colorado State, 30-28, 30-23, 21-30, 23-30, 15-7. The Bears moved to 2-1 on the season after the split. Both of Saturday’s opponents participated in the 2005 NCAA Tournament and received votes in the preseason AVCA Top 25 poll.
In the morning match against Texas A&M, the Aggies came out on fire, hitting .324 in game one on the way to the 30-19 win. The Bears improved on the offensive side in the second game, hitting .160 to Texas A&M’s .229, but the Aggies would keep Missouri State at arm’s length for most of the period after an early 9-9 tie and went on to a 30-26 win.
The Aggies completed the sweep with a sloppy 30-25 game three victory that saw just 23 kills against 22 errors between the two teams.
Erin O’Connor recorded double-digit kills for the second straight match, supplying a team-high 11 putaways. Katelyn Panzau chipped in five kills on nine swings while adding 29 assists from the setter position. Nikki Vandepopulier was the only Bear to finish with double figures in digs, ending the match with 12.
Missouri State hit .069 as a team to Texas A&M’s .202. Christi Hahn paced the Aggies with a .556 hitting percentage on 18 attempts.
The Bears rebounded with a strong start in the evening match against host Colorado State. Missouri State overcame an early 6-2 game one deficit by going on an 11-4 run and taking the opening game by a 30-28 score.
Missouri State rode the momentum by starting game two on a 6-1 run and never let the Rams within three points to take a 2-0 lead. The Bears hit .243 while Colorado State could only manage to break even.
After intermission, CSU looked like a different team, trading points with the Bears early in game three before pulling away for a 30-21 win. The Rams hit .257 in the third period after combining for just an .034 attack percentage through the first two.
The Missouri State offense fizzled in game four as the team struggled to just 12 kills against 14 errors for the period. The Rams were not stellar either, attacking at a .103 clip, but it was good enough for a 30-23 win to send the match into a winner-take-all fifth game.
In game five, the teams again traded points to a 7-6 Missouri State lead before the Bears would finish off with an 8-1 run to claim the match with a 15-7 game five victory. The Bears saved their best for last, hitting .296 in game five for their highest mark of the night.
The five game match allowed several Bears to put up some impressive numbers. O’Conner again led the team with 24 kills on 50 swings, while Shanda Harper added 12 kills of her own. Harper was also a part of nine blocks to lead the team in that category. Panzau recorded 53 assists to go along with 12 digs and nine kills, and Adeana McAfee dug a team-high 27 balls.
O’Connor and Panzau were named all-tournament, and the Bears finished second in the event with a 2-1 record.
Missouri State opens the home portion of the schedule Friday, Sept. 1 against UMKC at 7:00 p.m. as part of the TJ Sales/Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational. The two day event will also feature Arkansas State and Northwestern State in a six match round-robin style tournament.
