COLUMBIA, Mo. – After a two-match losing skid against Texas A&M and No. 13 Kentucky on the road, the Missouri Tigers were motivated to come back to Columbia to pick up a huge win against Southeast Missouri State. They did just that.

The first set would open up slowly as the teams learned what their opponent’s offenses were going to throw at one another, but eventually the Tiger’s began to pull away, heading into the media timeout up 15-10. It was coming back into the set where Missouri began to pour it on, with a five-point scoring run off the back of three straight service aces by star player Jordan Iliff. SEMO could do little after that, as the Tiger’s would have multiple players score kills from different areas of the court to win the first set 25-15.

The depth of Missouri is what many have remarked about over the course of this season, and the second set would be where that was most apparent. Mychael Vernon, Reagan Haith, and Naomi Franco would all add kills to the final tally alongside Iliff, winning the set 25-20 after a scrappy start and finish by the underdog Redhawks.

The Tiger’s then were ready to silence their in-state opponents, as after the media timeout in the third set, they would score 10 of the last 11 points of the night. That would be their best set performance of the night, winning 25-11, and thus the arena would get to go home early, knowing their Tiger’s had gotten the job done.

It remains to be seen where the Tiger’s truly are, seeing as this was a matchup of an SEC team versus an overmatched contender from the OVC. Against Texas A&M and Kentucky, Missouri was largely muted on the stat sheet, but against SEMO, it was the exact opposite. Four players had double-digit kills on the night, with the team ending at 52 kills, 50 set assists, on a hitting percentage of .530. Defensively they were strong too, with 41 digs by the end of the night.

Against SEC teams those numbers will stagnate, but it’s important for Missouri to rely on its depth and offensive output in order to succeed against the higher-level of competition they will host for the rest of their homestand.

Missouri takes on Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi State at home, on Oct. 11, Oct. 13 and Oct. 20 respectively.