BOULDER ? Missouri's Jessica Vander Kooi had a match-high 17 kills to lead the Tigers to a 30-26, 30-24, 33-31 Big 12 Conference win over No. 25 Colorado Saturday night at the Coors Events Conference Center.
The Buffaloes, 8-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 lose at home to an unranked opponent for the first time in 21 matches dating back to Nov. 27, 2002 against Baylor. Missouri improves to 8-4 overall, 3-2 in league play.
Vander Kooi had 15 of her kills in the first two games as Missouri opened up tight games late. Game one was tied at 20 before the Tigers went on an 8-3 run, eventually winning 30-26. MU opened up its lead a little earlier in game two cruising 30-24. The Tigers hit .319 in game two (21 kills-6 errors-47 attacks) and .258 for the match (63k-24e-151att). Colorado hit just .209 with 50 kills on 134 attacks with 22 errors.
Colorado led early in game three, but the Tigers to tie the score at 16-16. Neither team led by more than two the rest of the way, and Missouri had to fight off two Buffaloes' game-points to seal the match at 33-31.
“Missouri played a great match,” CU head coach Pi'i Aiu said. “It's not that we played a bad match, they did a great job against us.”
Junior Allie Griffin led CU with 16 kills while junior Maragda Santillana had 13. Senior Allison Barnes topped the Buffaloes with a match-high 13 digs.
Colorado will travel to face Iowa State on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m. MDT in Ames, Iowa.
