As the Missouri tournament winds down, the Tigers have a lot to work on winning one set the whole tournament and looking awful the last game against Creighton University. Coach Taylor begins his third campaign with the Tigers and starting with a relatively clean slate. After losing two of the most influential members of last year’s NCAA tournament team to graduation and the transfer portal, Taylor had to start fresh with an extremely young team. So, Taylor had his work cut out for him.
After a crushing sweep by Saint Louis University and a 3-1 lose to the University of Missouri Kansas-City, the Tigers were looking to avoid an 0-3 start while the Creighton Blue Jays were looking to go 3-0 for the first time since 2017. The Blue Jays came out strong scoring three unanswered points until Leandra Mangual-Duran got the Tigers on the board with the first two points for the Tigers. The Tigers would go on to battle for the first set but ultimately lose by a score of 25-21.
The Blue Jays would continue with the momentum that they had in the first round by scoring the first two points of the second set. Mizzou got on the board after a successful challenge by Coach Taylor which led to the Tigers getting three unanswered points, before another collapse. After taking the lead, the Tigers would struggle to get anything going offensively or defensively, having the Blue Jays go up by 10 before Mizzou used their final timeout. A timeout would prove to be unhelpful, however, the Tigers were lucky to break double digits, losing the second set 25-10 ending on a Mizzou service error.
The third set for the Tigers didn’t look much brighter, as for the third set in a row the Blue Jays took the first point. The Tigers were able to tie it at three. But after a major run by the Blue Jays resulting in a media timeout, the Blue Jays were out hitting the Tigers in every category including kills (34-20), aces (5-2) and blocks (6-5). After securing three consecutive aces, the Blue Jays were only two points away from winning the match, as they scored two more unanswered points giving themselves a clean sweep. Mizzou goes back to the drawing board and gets ready for Tuesday, where they will play the Kansas State Wildcats.