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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, December 8, 2005

Missouri mirrors Manoa

 •  2005 Division I Women's Volleyball Championship

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jessica Vander Kooi and her Missouri teammates appear to match up well with Hawai'i. Vander Kooi, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, is an All-Central Region player who averages 3.5 kills per game.

JUSTIN KELLEY | Missouri athletics

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Rainbow Wahine are 5,000 miles from home, in sub-freezing temperatures and surrounded by snow. It's beginning to look a lot like ... Manoa, or at least it could tomorrow when the volleyballs are rolled out for Hawai'i's NCAA Regional against Missouri.

Penn State's Rec Hall might take on the aura of the Stan Sheriff Center if the coaches are perceptive and statistics don't lie.

The 10th-seeded Tigers (24-4) are not your typical hulking, "throw it up and bang it" Big-12 team, according to coach Wayne Kreklow. Ballhandling is the foundation of their success, balance is optimum, setting the silent strength. Mizzou seemingly matches the seventh-seeded 'Bows down to the tiny libero that each team looks to for leadership.

"We try to play a little faster tempo, which is what Hawai'i does," Kreklow says. "Their middles tend to get there early, their tempo is fairly quick. They spend a lot of time on ball-control like we do.

"For example, Texas is bigger than us and probably more physical, but our challenge when we played Texas was to try and play the game better and not get caught up in a game where we have to go size-for-size and power-for-power. We wouldn't match up well that way."

Mizzou more than matched up to the Longhorns once, sweeping them in Missouri, but got swept in Austin. Hawai'i took out Texas in four games last weekend in Austin to get to its eighth consecutive regional.

Kreklow, and wife/associate coach Susan, moved cross-town to Division-I Missouri after guiding Columbia to NAIA championships in 1998 and '99. The Tigers have reached the NCAA Tournament ever since, winning their first postseason match in 2002. They hosted a subregional the last two years, which makes them the envy of the Rainbows, and outdrew all other sites last week with two-day attendance of 8,784.

They are ranked a Mizzou-best eighth in this week's Top 25 (UH is sixth). Kreklow is confident his ranking is accurate. All five of his hitters average nearly three kills or better, with 6-foot-3 sophomore Na Yang at a team-high four. Senior setter Lindsey Hunter has the team hitting .304.

The roster is a mix of old — six upperclassmen — and new, Midwest and Far East. Three players are Chinese and the Tigers have visited China twice since the Kreklows took over. Kreklow describes the fusion as helpful socially and competitively, with the Chinese players coming to college "more skilled" and the Americans "better athletes."

What all have in common, he says, is intelligence, a strong work ethic and successful mind-set. That, and the intangibles, have brought them here.

"We've got really good chemistry," Kreklow says. "That's what separates this team from some of the other groups we've had. If you do this long enough you can look back and certain teams have a little bit extra. Usually it's the intangible things that separate them and allow them to go a little farther than another team that might be as talented but didn't have that extra spark."

Mizzou skated through its subregional, blasting Arkansas with 14 aces and .505 hitting to get here. Hawai'i (27-6) is also coming off its best match and has spent the last three days trying to stay healthy, less wealthy (they shopped Sunday) and relatively warm.

"We have had enough time to come back to earth and get back up," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "The two days off were good."

The intensity of last Saturday's showdown between the teams that then shared the country's No. 7 ranking might have been better.

"We've been tested and we responded," Shoji said of the match against Texas. "A lot of really good teams were tested and did not respond. There were many upsets (last week). I feel good about our response to the challenge. It was not looking good after Game 1, but we turned things around.

"We've been in a tough situation. In every match in the next round, everybody is going to be challenged. Nobody is going to win easy like Round 2 was for some teams. It will be the teams that have enough talent and heart that make the next round."

NOTES

Dave Shoji has been named the Tachikara/AVCA West Region Coach of the Year, earning the award for the third straight season and the eighth time overall.

Tomorrow's Hawai'i-Missouri match begins at 11 a.m. HST and will be broadcast live on KFVE (5) and Sports Radio (1420 AM). Tennessee, seeded 15th at 23-8, plays second-seeded Penn State (31-2) in the second match. The winners play at 11 a.m. HST Saturday in the regional championship. The final four begins next Thursday (Dec. 15) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Susan Kreklow was Missouri's head coach the first five years she and husband Wayne were with the Tigers because the school preferred not to have co-head coaches. When the Kreklows' contracts were renewed after last season, they decided to swap positions because they have three children between the ages of 9 and 13.

"The kids are old enough now that they have a lot going on and occasionally somebody just has to be there with them," Wayne Kreklow said. "It would be awkward to have a head coach be gone instead of an associate. This makes it a little easier for Susan to be gone."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.