Missouri volleyball left Tulsa with more than a five-set exhibition under its belt. It left with a better idea of what this young team looks like when the match stops going according to plan.
For head coach Dawn Sullivan, that may have been the most valuable part of the Tigers’ first exhibition against Tulsa.
Missouri controlled stretches of the match, playing with the energy and execution Sullivan wanted to see. Then Tulsa pushed back, forcing the Tigers to respond. That response became the biggest
takeaway from a night designed to test a team still learning how to play together.
“I thought it was actually really, really good for us,” Sullivan said. “Some of the sets, we were really on fire and really in control.”
But Tulsa did not allow Missouri to stay comfortable.
The Golden Hurricane began finding its rhythm, creating the kind of adversity Missouri will face throughout the season. Sullivan said the match gave her players an opportunity to experience what happens when an opponent starts making a run and the Tigers have to find an answer.
“I think Tulsa is a really good team,” Sullivan said. “They started lighting it up, so we got a little pushback, so the team got to feel, how they are going to respond in those situations.”
That response remains important for a Missouri team still developing its identity.
The Tigers did rotate players during the exhibition, though Sullivan said the lineup was more consistent than it had been the previous weekend. Missouri used different players on the right side and rotated in the middle, but the changes were not the primary reason Sullivan saw the team go through stretches of inconsistency.
Instead, she pointed to something simpler.
Missouri is young.
The Tigers are still learning how to play with one another, and that understanding cannot be developed entirely in practice. It takes matches, mistakes and moments when players have to figure things out together.
“I think it’s just being a little bit early and being very young, not really experienced on the court and how we play together,” Sullivan said.
That made the Tulsa exhibition useful beyond the final result.
Missouri had to learn how to maintain its composure while an opponent gained momentum. It had to learn how to trust the players around it. And, most importantly, it had to begin building the connection Sullivan believes will define this team.
That connection was something Sullivan noticed throughout the week leading into the exhibition.
The Tigers spent time together away from the court during a week-long team retreat in the Branson area before traveling to Springfield for their exhibition matchup against Tulsa. They cooked together, participated in team activities and even held a karaoke night.
Those moments carried over into the exhibition, Sullivan said.
“This team is really, really special, really close,” Sullivan said. “I just think they’re learning how to compete together on the court, and it just takes a little time.”
The Tulsa match offered a glimpse of that process.
There were stretches when Missouri looked in control and others when Tulsa forced the Tigers to adjust. For Sullivan, both were ideal for the start of the season.
The point of an exhibition was never simply to play five sets. It was to discover what still needs work before the matches begin counting.
Against Tulsa, Missouri discovered it can play at a high level. It also discovered that maintaining that level when the opponent fights back will require experience.
For a team learning itself, that may have been exactly what Sullivan wanted.
First Serve will be back next Monday to dive deep into the things learned from preseason and training camp; and The Fifth Set will return next Friday previewing the first regular season game of the year against Western Illinois.
