Missouri volleyball gets again into the swing in opposition to Colorado

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There were enough mistakes made by the Missouri volleyball team in last night’s match against Colorado to keep Coach Wayne Kreklow and his staff busy as they ready the squad for a meeting with third-ranked Nebraska.

But they’ll have time to address all those things — such as the 15 attack errors or the fact that the Tigers only managed three blocks — in practice before Wednesday.

For the time being, Kreklow was simply satisfied with the results as his Tigers swept the Buffaloes 25-20, 25-22, 25-19 at the Hearnes Center in a bounce-back victory three nights after a road loss at Kansas.

“There’s a lot of things we can do a lot better, so I wouldn’t classify it as a great performance by any means,” Kreklow said. “But we did a lot of things well, and I was kind of pleased with the way we were just steady.”

It didn’t hurt Kreklow’s mood that Paola Ampudia recaptured the form that made her a preseason All-Big 12 pick. The senior right-side hitter from Cali, Colombia, finished with a season-high 20 kills to lead the team. It was the first time she registered more than 15 since a four-set win over Western Kentucky on Sept. 10.

“This is the first time in a long time that I’ve kind of seen her and Molly get into a good rhythm where she was clicking and really getting some good looks,” he said.

“Molly” is his niece and freshman setter Molly Kreklow, who notched 44 assists, marking the fourth straight match she’s topped 40. She spent a large portion of the evening setting Ampudia, either coming up the middle out of the back row or swinging out wide on the right side.

“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice, and we were getting really good passes, so it just made it a lot easier,” Molly Kreklow said. “We started a lot earlier in the match, so once you get warmed up into rhythm, it just made it a lot easier to continue that.”

Colorado blockers appeared preoccupied with middle blockers Brittney Brimmage and Catie Wilson, and they often weren’t in position to contest Ampudia’s attacks.

Kreklow called her number more than ever in the tightly contested second set, and Ampudia responded with seven kills to help stake the Tigers (11-5, 3-3 Big 12) to a 16-11 advantage.

But in one of their few letdown moments of the match, they let the rebuilding Buffaloes (5-7, 2-4) run off five straight points and eight of 10 to briefly inch ahead at 19-18. Ampudia helped Missouri pull out of its funk with four more kills, including the game-clincher.

“This game, I felt more comfortable in the back row. I don’t know why,” said Ampudia, who did make eight errors in her 41 total attacks. “I had more opportunities, more chances to swing at the back row, and that helped me a lot.”

Wayne Kreklow equated her to a jump shooter in basketball or a running back in football who gets even better with an increased workload.

“She’s got to get swings,” the coach said. “My honest opinion with P a lot of times, I think P, if she’s not getting a lot of swings, she tends to check out a little. Not like she’s not paying attention, but when she’s getting a lot of swings, she’s ready to go every single time. If they’re coming a little bit fewer and farther in between, she kind of kicks back and then when we go to her, she’s not ready.”

Missouri will need her at her best to have a chance against the Cornhuskers on Wednesday night.