Defeat against Dukes signals the end of NCAA tournament for the Tigers
The regional semi-final match that took place Friday night saw the overall 12th seed Dukes emerge as victors which left the Tigers defeated. The contest was a tough one, with the Tigers putting up a fight in three sets while winning one. The set
scores were as follows: (25-19, 21-25, 25-19, 25-22).
The Tigers team was disappointed as they were able to beat overall fifth seed UNI and Northwestern in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament respectively and enter the Sweet 16.
Tigers head coach Wayne Kreklow said: “It’s always a tough locker room in there, but you try to remind them that it was a great season. They don’t want to hear that now because everyone is disappointed, but only one team is going to finish this tournament
on a win.”
This is reflected by the statements made by some of the Tigers team player: “We came out, and we fought hard, but it just wasn’t our night,” senior middle blocker Catie Wilson said.
Matching the sentiment, senior outside hitter Julianna Klein shared similar feelings: “Overall, it was definitely a battle. It was kind of an off night for us. It just wasn’t quite clicking.”
It was the first time since 2005 that Missouri was able to come this far in the NCAA tournament and the first time since 2007 that MU entered NCAA. This season also marked the most wins that MU was able to make since 2005.
The first two sets of the match had the contest at even but the Tigers lost the third, giving the advantage to the Dukes. At the start of the fourth set, Missouri was under pressure with the score board showing 5-1. The Tigers managed to pull back and get
a lead at 11-9. However, they were not able to stay at the top of the game, giving the lead back to the Dukes at 15-10.
Kreklow admitted to the superior play of the Dukes: “Duke consistently, throughout the night, served and passed better than we did and that was the story of the match. It just wasn’t our night.”
Wilson also showed sportsman spirit and pondered over the mistakes made by the Tigers: “We would have a good pass and a good set, and then we would hit it out of bounds. We were never all on the same page at the same time.”
The Dukes will be moving on ahead to the Sprint Centre for the NCAA championship while the Tigers will be heading back home.
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