Dawn Sullivan’s team returned to the court at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational, sweeping both opponents to open the year 2-0. Here’s the recap of the Tigers’ two victories:
Mizzou 3, James Madison 0
The Tigers opened the season with a 3-0 sweep of James Madison 25-19, 25-15, 25-20. (Sure would have been nice to have it televised, eh?)
Mizzou opened the first set on a 6-0 run and never looked back, holding the lead the entire set. Transfer
Caylen Alexander was a key part of that run with three kills. Alexander finished the first set with five kills, leading the way to open the season.
The second set was the strongest for the Tigers, winning by 10 points. This success was aided by a 7-0 run in the middle of the set, putting Mizzou ahead 19-9. This set was the Tigers’ strongest with 18 kills and a 0.593 hitting percentage. The second set belonged to Kimani Johnson, who racked up seven kills including the 25th and final point.
Alexander closed the third set with her 14th kill as the Tigers won 25-20. Alexander led the team in kills, followed by Johnson with 13. Setter Marina Crownover recorded her first double-double of the season with 36 assists and 11 digs; she tied for the team lead in digs with libero Maya Sands.
This marked a milestone game for Sands, recording her 1,500th career dig. Speaking of accolades, this victory marked Sullivan’s 150th head coaching win.
Mizzou 3, FGCU 0
It felt like deja vu the next day as the Tigers took down host-FGCU 3-0 in relatively quick fashion 25-19, 25-17, 25-15.
Mizzou ran into some early trouble, as the Eagles took a 7-3 lead to start the game after capitalizing on five attacking errors. The Tigers proceeded to tie it and pull away with a 22-12 run down the stretch. USC transfer and middle blocker Tyrah Ariail helped set the tone with three kills and three blocks in the first set. Ariail finished second on the team with nine kills with a .412 attacking percentage and four blocks.
The Tigers put on an offensive show in the second set with a season-high 20 kills with a 0.405 hitting percentage on their way to winning 25-17. Half of those kills from Alexander and Regan Haith, who finished the set with five apiece. Haith was uber-efficient on the attack with eight kills on nine attempts, registering a 0.778 hitting percentage.
The team closed out the final set in quick fashion, taking down the Eagles 25-15 to close the weekend at 2-0. Alexander added another five kills during the third set to finish with 17, leading the team in kills for the second straight match. The final set was their most efficient, finishing with a 0.5 attacking percentage. Crownover had another strong game with two kills plus-39 assists; she was the only setter to play for Mizzou this weekend.
Sullivan showed she was unafraid to play freshmen, with defensive specialist Zoey Matias-Lopez and outside hitter Paige Felder both receiving two starts over the weekend in their first collegiate matches. Matias-Lopez is currently second on the team with 18 digs while Felder racked up 11 kills and five blocks.
However, senior outside hitter Janet deMarrais remains missing from the lineup, still out with an undisclosed injury. Talking to Sullivan earlier in the week, she said there were no serious injury so I would not expect Janet to miss a lengthy amount of time.
The Tigers hit the road again this upcoming week with a pair of road games at Arkansas State. The first game is Thursday at 7 p.m., and will be available on ESPN+.
