Crose and Docekalova end careers with loss at No. 10 Missouri

Jump to Missouri box score COLUMBIA, Mo. – Seniors Karla Crose and Iva Docekalova ended their careers as the University of Arkansas ended its season in the second round of the 2005 NCAA Volleyball Tournament in Columbia, Mo., Saturday. The Lady Razorbacks finished the year with a 21-12 overall record after the 25-30, 16-30, 11-30 lost to 10th-seeded and 10th-ranked Missouri on the Tigers’ home court. Crose and Docekalova finished their careers at Arkansas leading the Lady’Backs to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time during their four-year careers. It was Arkansas’ third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance with the duo on the roster. Ironically, it was Missouri who ended Arkansas’ post-season hopes last year as well, defeating the Lady’Backs in first round action, also in Columbia. “I thought Missouri played great,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “We played them pretty close in the first game but they took it to another level in games two and three and we couldn’t match that. It was just one of those nights where we couldn’t pass the ball.” Junior Kele Brewer was the lone Lady’Back with double-digit kills leading Arkansas with 10 and a .250 hitting percentage. Redshirt freshman Christina Lawrence tallied eight kills while junior Amy Allison added six for Arkansas. Crose had a pair of kills, five digs and one block assist while Docekalova had 0 assists and three digs in the loss. “It was difficult for us to handled Missouri’s serve tonight,” said Crose after the match. “We just never found our rhythm with our passing and it was the difference.” Missouri touched Arkansas with 14 service aces – the Lady’Backs had just one in the match. Arkansas played Missouri point-for-point for much of game one as the teams felt each other out in the early goings. Tied at 10, Missouri managed a five-point run grabbing a 15-10 lead heading into the media timeout. The Lady’Backs rallied and caught back up with a 6-1 run as the score evened at 16-all. Mizzou kept their crowd into the match and the seventh-man was a difference-marker as the Tigers went on a run pushing the lead to six late in the opening game. The Lady’Backs answered the run closing within four, 28-24, forcing Missouri to call their first timeout to try and stall the Arkansas scoring. The Lady’Backs got a quick point out of the break on a Missouri hitting error but an Arkansas hitting error and final Tiger attack put the game in the books. Arkansas hit a respectable .267 in the first game limiting their errors to just seven for the frame but Missouri was equally as successful hitting .325 with just five hitting errors. Brewer paced the Arkansas hitters with six kills in the first game. The Lady’Backs seemed to run out of gas in the second frame and were a bit flat in starting the offense allowing Missouri to open a big lead early. Arkansas never recovered as the Lady’Backs dropped game two, 16-30, behind just nine kills while Missouri hit .625 in the frame with 22 kills and two hitting errors. Again Arkansas’ hitting percentage was pretty good with a .333 mark in game two but just nine kills in 24 attempts was the difference. Missouri picked up where they left off to start game three opening the game with a 7-0 run including two ace serves from Abbie Booth before Lawrence got a kill getting Arkansas on the board. The Lady’Backs didn’t make many mistakes but neither did Missouri who controlled the tempo throughout the night. Arkansas’ normally balanced attack was matched by the equally balanced offense of Missouri who finished the night with four players in double-digit kills. The early game deficit was too much for Arkansas to rally from as Missouri hit .640 in the final game finishing the match with a .505 mark behind 57 kills and just eight hitting errors. Arkansas struggled in the final stanza hitting .042, dropping their hitting percentage to .226 for the match.