Wildcats Clipped by Tigers on Road

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Kansas State Wildcats could not find their rhythm against Missouri on Wednesday night as the Tigers got the sweep 25-21, 25-20, 25-18. The two teams battled back-and-forth in each set before Missouri (14-9, 6-6 Big 12) was able to pull ahead late each time to get the victory.

K-State (8-13, 2-9) was led by JuliAnne Chisholm in kills with 10. Libero Lauren Mathewson moved into eighth in career digs as she now has 1,038 for her career after posting 13 to lead the Wildcats. The Wildcats combined to hit .215 compared to Missouri's .333 thanks to the arm of Paola Ampudia.

Ampudia followed her 35-kill match against Kansas this weekend with 18 against K-State while hitting .317 on 41 swings. She also added four digs and two aces. Missouri was led defensively by libero Caitlyn Vann with 13 digs as the Tigers did not allow a K-State ace all night.

The first set was a back-and-forth battle until Missouri was able to pull ahead 15-11 with a pair of blocks. Down four points, K-State would answer scoring six of the next eight points including a three-point rally to force a timeout by Missouri. In that run Chisholm tallied a pair of blocks and kills to swing the momentum back to K-State's side of the net.

K-State could not hold onto that momentum out of the timeout, however, as Missouri scored five straight points to reclaim the lead 23-18 with a series of blocks and errors on K-State's part. The Wildcats did battle back within three points but could not complete the comeback as the five-point run was too much losing 25-21.

In the second set, it was a repeat performance with each team trading blows and exchanging leads until Missouri was able to build a four-point lead late in the set at 20-16. K-State would pull within three points, but the Tigers closed the door taking advantage of K-State mistakes to win 25-20 and take a 2-0 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

The Wildcats fell behind early in the third set 6-2 but were able to narrow the lead to one point before the Tigers responded with a 4-1 run to re-open that lead and the Wildcats could not recover. After leading 17-13, Missouri would outscore K-State 8-5 to close the door 25-18.

K-State will continue its week of road trips with a match at Oklahoma on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Wildcat football team will also be in Norman taking on the Sooners at 6 p.m. Saturday, and fans with football tickets can get into the volleyball match for just $3.

- k-statesports.com -