Mizzou Volleyball is headed for Ohio with an impressive 5-1 record, besting two of last year’s tournament teams in the Colgate Raiders and the South Dakota Coyotes. Their one loss came at the hands of the 2022 NCAA Tournament Runners-Up, the third-ranked Louisville Cardinals. 

With six games under their belt, we have a good enough sample size to start looking at some stats. Here are my five most eye-opening stats from the last two weeks of play.

1). Morgan Isenberg’s 29 blocks*

Now, the asterisk here is that 28 of these blocks are block assists, which means she had someone next to her on 97% of those blocks. However, this has represented an impressive level of play from the junior who’s only been a backup for the last two seasons. At just 6’0’’, Isenberg has looked up to almost every middle opposite this season. What stands out is her speed; she makes fantastic reads to give Missouri double blocks, something the team struggled mightily with last year. There’s a 16 block difference between her and Jordan Iliff, who is second on the team in blocks. 

2). Dilara Gedikoglu’s .161 hitting percentage

The Mendoza Line of baseball (a .200 batting average) can also be used in volleyball as the benchmark for a decent hitting percentage. While her kills have come when games have  mattered the most, this rate is very suboptimal. Although Jordan Iliff is the team’s number one option, Gedikoglu is still the team’s best OH and will need to overcome her height disadvantage to keep balls in the court. She and Iliff both have the most attacking errors on the team (36 each), but Gedikoglu has 14 fewer kills.

3). Sierra Dudley’s 53 digs

When people talk about the freshman standout, a lot of attention has been paid to  her assist numbers. Although I agree that Dudley has been a revelation at setter for the Tigers, I’m not sure that’s the best part of her game. Dudley is second on the team in digs ahead of Gedikoglu and DS Lauren Forbes, but a lot of these digs are not coming from the back row; instead, they’re coming from the front row off of block tips. Dudley is adept at taking those balls and giving the Tigers opportunities on out-of-system plays. These are second opportunities that a lot of teams would not get, and it’s adding a different dimension to the entire team. 

4). Jordan Iliff’s .687 serving percentage

There are two topspin servers on this year’s Tigers team: Gedikoglu, who has opted more for her float as of late, and Iliff, who has stuck with her hybrid approach. Iliff, who was strictly a front row player in 2022, has been playing all six rotations on the right side for the Tigers, giving her a new opportunity to serve. She’s scored nine aces for Missouri, but at the cost of 21 service errors. Topspin servers are rare commodities in the modern women’s game, but so far, it hasn’t bore a lot of fruit for Mizzou. The weird benchmark I’ve seen a lot of coaches give their topspin servers is to make two out of every three, so technically, Iliff is ahead, but for how long?

5). Louisville vs. Missouri’s reported attendance of 2,503

Attendance logs for volleyball teams are kind of spotty. Some of them just don’t do it or give up halfway through the year. But if Missouri’s are to be believed, this attendance is more than double of the highest they saw in 2022 and the highest since 2018. There have been times I’ve broadcasted games at the Hearnes Center and there are less than a hundred people in attendance. This type of turnout for Dawn Sullivan and company is amazing and should get better when home SEC play begins on September 24th against South Carolina. It also helps that some of these giveaways are awesome. The wine glass giveaway on November 12th is the only reason I haven’t dropped out of college. If my parents are reading this, that is a joke.