COLUMBIA, Mo. ? Defense and solid hitting by Missouri led to a sweep of Colorado 30-21, 30-24, 30-24 in a Big 12 Conference match Saturday afternoon at the Hearnes Center.
Colorado, which has lost three-straight for the first time since the 2002 season, falls to 10-8 overall and 5-6 in league play. Missouri climbs to 13-5 overall and will remain in third place in the Big 12 at 8-3.
Missouri's ability to keep CU blockers at bay certainly helped the Tigers' cause. The Buffs, who entered the match as the third-best blocking team in the Big 12 during the league season with 3.14 blocks per game, were held with out a block in the first two games and registered a season-low one team block for the match.
The Tigers on the other hand blocked well with 10 total team blocks. When they weren't blocking, Missouri's defense was digging everything in sight. MU had 48 digs led by defensive specialist Tatum Ailes who had a match-high 14.
Missouri hit a season high .456 for the match netting 61 kills on 114 attacks with only nine errors. CU hit .213 with 44 kills on 122 attacks with 18 errors.
Maragda Santillana led the Buffaloes with 13 kills and had the team's only block. Junior Allie Griffin had 12 kills and eight digs while sophomore Austin Zimmerman had eight digs as well. Wilson ended with a match-high 19 kills for the Tigers hitting .562 (19k-1e-32att).
Missouri jumped out of the gate with an 8-1 lead in game one. CU pulled to within 17-13, but the Tigers used solid hitting to pull away. Nicole Wilson had six kills on seven attacks (.857) as MU hit .400 for the game (18k-4e-35att). Santillana had six kills of her own, but the Buffs hit just .171 (14k-8e-35att).
The Tigers hit even better in game two with a whopping .500 (22k-2e-40att), but Colorado kept it close. The Buffs had Missouri tied at 18 in game two before the serving of Shen Danru started giving the Buffs trouble. Missouri scored six straight points off Danru's serve as the Tigers pulled away from there, winning the game 30-24.
Colorado will continue its Big 12 schedule at No. 4 ranked Nebraska on Wednesday, Nov. 27, at 6 p.m. MDT in Lincoln, Neb.
