Mizzou volleyball left the comfort of Hearnes Center with a three-game win streak under its belt for Cape Girardeau to play Southeast Missouri State. The Tigers probably didn’t expect this match to go the distance, but they still claimed the 3-2 win.
There was plenty of variability in the match despite it going to five sets. Only one set had a score margin less than five. Both teams hit under .200, and there was only a three-error margin between the two teams.
Five-set matches tend to bring up some
crazy stat lines, but due to the low hitting percentages, that wasn’t the case. Outside hitter Caylen Alexander (15) and middle Tyrah Ariail (12) were the only Mizzou players with double-digit kills.
Despite modest numbers, Alexander surpassed 1500 career kills in this match, joining Lisa Henning and Mychael Vernon as the only Tigers to reach 1500 career kills.
Here’s how the match went down, set-by-set:
It was an inefficient start to the match for both sides, neither team hit higher than .150 in the first set, but it was the Redhawks who grabbed momentum in front of their sold-out crowd. The score was 17-12 Tigers, but four combined attacking errors from Alexander and Ariail sparked a 5-0 run to tie the set.
The response by Mizzou was even louder. It was Marina Crownover’s serving and a pair of freshmen attackers that carried the Tigers on a 7-0 run to win the opening set. Outside hitter Paige Felder and right side Maca Lobaglio had two kills apiece in the run, and Lobaglio had the set-clinching block.
Mizzou did not carry over its run-stopping ability into the second set. They had an early 11-7 lead, but an 11-1 run by SEMO put the Tigers at a six-point deficit and forced a timeout by head coach Dawn Sullivan. There were signs of a rally by freshman setter Nina Mandovic, who had back-to-back service aces to make the score 20-17, but the Redhawks controlled the set from there, winning 25-20.
Errors hurt Mizzou in the second set, totaling 10 to SEMO’s six. The main positive despite the Redhawks knotting the match at 1-1 was the fact that four different freshmen for the Tigers were contributing at a high level in Zoey Matias, Felder, Lobaglio and Mandovic.
The third set was the closest affair of the night, with nine ties and four lead changes. Mizzou set the tone in the third by taking the first three points. Both teams did a better job of limiting unanswered runs – but a 4-0 run towards the tail end of the set gave SEMO a 21-20 lead.
Just as the Tigers started the third on a 3-0 run, that’s how they finished. Ariail had a block on the possession before set point and then a crucial Sands dig set up Mizzou to win the set 25-23 on a Redhawk attacking error.
It was a back-and-forth set four early on that saw the score even at 7-7, but from there SEMO went on a 9-2 run to take a comfortable lead. The Redhawks’ flow could not be stopped for the remainder of that set, leading to a 25-17 win, the largest set margin of victory in the match.
Alexander jumped into double-digit kills in the fourth set, but Marin Johnson and Katherine St. John combined for 25 kills through the first four sets. Mizzou actually hit a solid .259 in the fourth, but it did not compare to SEMO’s .455 hitting percentage.
The Tigers could not suffer a loss against an Ohio Valley Conference team while in the heat of SEC play. A 3-0 run early in the fifth set put Mizzou up 6-2, and an Alexander kill in that run pushed her to 1500 career kills. There were five different Tigers to record a kill in the final set. Ariail led the way with four kills in the fifth and had the match-deciding kill.
Mizzou convincingly won the fifth set 15-8, behind its match-best .400 hitting percentage. Sullivan had her players composed in the clutch, only totaling two errors in the set.
The Tigers improved to 13-7 with their road win. They will return to the Hearnes Center for two matches this weekend, the first coming Oct. 24 against South Carolina. The match will be broadcast on SECN+.
