FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2006

Lions fall three games to one to 17th ranked Central Missouri in first round of NCAA Division II Tournament

Kirksville, Mo.  -- Tessa Woods (Joplin, MO) had 16 kills and hit .441 but the Missouri Southern Lions fell to 17th ranked Central Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional, three games to one today.

Southern (23-12) started game one slow, allowing the Jennies to open up a 10-3 lead, but a kill from Ashley Wright (Everton, MO) stopped the Central Missouri run. Ashley Merher (Kansas City, MO) had four kills and a block in the game, but the Lions hit just .132, with Central at .457 and fell to the Jennies, 30-17.

The Lions took a lead at 9-8 in game two and wouldn't trail. After an 8-1 run to make the score 17-9, Central (28-6) was forced to call its second timeout of the game. The lead would be 19-15 before a timeout by Southern, but the Lions would outscore the Jennies 11-10 over the rest of the game to tie the match at one game a piece. Merher had four kills in game two, while Woods added six and no errors.

The Jennies opened up a 6-0 lead in game three and led 18-9 before a 4-0 run from Southern cut the lead to 18-13, forcing a UCM timeout. The Jennies pushed the lead to 26-17, forcing a Southern timeout and cruised to a 30-19 game three win. Woods, again, had five kills and no errors in the game.

Central opened up a 6-3 lead in game four. Cherie Baugh (Joplin, MO) had three straight kills for Southern making the score 10-6, UCM. Southern cut the lead to 19-17 on a kill from Wright and it was 22-19 after a kill from Woods. The Jennies, however, outscored Southern 8-2 to close out the game and the match, winning 30-21.

Baugh and Mehrer had 11 and 10 kills, respectively with Mehrer hitting .333 for the match. Megan Norman (Stockton, MO) had 23 digs, while Sarah Hoffmeister (Joplin, MO) added 14.

Central's Katie Tarka, normally the team's starting libero, played front line today and led the Jennies with 22 kills, hitting .419 for the match. Jillian Ohrman had 20 kills, hitting .421, while Lauren Nuckolls had 17 kills. Audrey Jenson had a match-high 25 digs.

Southern ends its season with a 23-12 record, the second-best mark since the team moved up to Division II. The Lions broke team records in digs, and block assists this season with Mehrer claiming the school mark for block assists and Norman besting the previous dig mark by 135 with 735.