The Standard

Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Joe Trost

One of the old clichés in sports is that a win is a win no matter how it looked. For the Missouri State volleyball team, that might describe how last weekend turned out.

The team looked flat early against Southern Illinois and Evansville, before finally pulling away late in the match. The Lady Bears went 30-28, 30-24 and 35-37 before finally ending it 30-21 against the Salukis on Friday and 30-26, 30-27, 30-22 against the Purple Aces on Saturday.

Missouri State (16-2 overall, 6-0 in conference) won its 11th match in a row but was never able to get into much of a rhythm against these scrappy teams, especially Evansville. Evansville got to every loose ball and put it back over as the Aces literally put the ball in the Lady Bears court and made Missouri State make the mistake.

Missouri State did oblige by giving Evansville 48 percent of their points on Missouri State errors, but the Lady Bears did end up getting two-thirds of their points in winners.

"I'm not too concerned with our play this weekend," head coach Melissa Stokes said. "Coming off the road trip last weekend and then having to play a Tuesday night match, really got us out of our routine."

"We just need to get a full week of practice in and we should be fine against Wichita State on Friday."

A week of practice and rest may just be what the doctor ordered for this Lady Bears lineup. After averaging a game every other day for the last month, it's time for Missouri State to lick their wounds.

One of the health concerns for the Lady Bears is senior Sara Thomas. Thomas had almost identical performances this past weekend with 8 kills, 12 digs and 4 assists in both matches. However, these numbers are rather low for the two-time MVC player of the week.

"Sara is only at about 60 percent right now," Stokes said. "She is recovering from a sinus infection and needs to get some extra rest between now and next weekend."

The other major concern is recovery of junior Nikki Vandepopulier from her concussion just over three weeks ago. After being out for about two weeks, she was put back in the libero role before being 100 percent.

However, against Evansville, in her active first match without the different colored jersey, Vandepopulier took care of business. She led the team with 12 digs, while only seeing half of her usual playing time.

"I was a little worried about how Nikki might do after getting taken out of her spot, but she was really impressive," Stokes said.

Besides Vandepopulier, senior Jamie Adams and sophomore Sara Staubach both looked impressive against Evansville, putting up career-high hitting nights. Adams had 19 kills on .500 hitting, while Staubach added 16 kills, bringing Missouri State to 10-0 whenever she has 10 or more kills.

Next up for the Lady Bears will be Wichita State (13-4, 5-1), one of the perennial conference favorites and the second ranked team in the preseason. Their only conference was against Northern Iowa in four games.

The Bears and Shockers match will be at 7 p.m. Friday in front of what could be a game-changing crowd in Hammons Student Center.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools