Mizzou volleyball (12-7, 4-4) defeated the LSU Tigers (10-9, 3-5) with a score of 3-1 in emphatic fashion Sunday at the Hearnes Center. The victory marks the third straight SEC win for Mizzou.
With the game tied at a set apiece and the Missouri Tigers facing set point, down 24-16, they fended off Auburn for eight straight set points to knot the game. Missouri would take the third set 27-25.
“Our team just never stops believing,” Missouri Head Coach Dawn Sullivan said.
That belief was instilled in the team until the very last whistle when the Missouri Tigers went on another run. This one, 8-2, closed the fourth set 25-19.
“The way they came back in that third set set some momentum moving forward,” Sullivan said.
Prior to Missouri’s two final set victories, the game had been split between the squads. Missouri began the match red hot, outscoring LSU 8-1 to start the game and taking the first set 25-19.
LSU won the second set 25-20 due in large part to success killing the ball. It had 15 kills in the set with a hitting percentage of .289.
But the Louisiana State Tigers hadn’t even seen their biggest lead yet, that came in the third when they led Missouri 22-12.
And that’s when the stars began to shine bright for Missouri, as Janet Demarrais and Caylen Alexander combined for six kills in the closing points. The outside hitters ended the match with 17 kills each.
Demarrais hit at a team high clip of .400 in the contest while Alexander added two service aces and six digs to her box score.
Alexander and Demarrais weren’t the only players with a strong third set, as freshman Zoey Matias-Lopez impacted the game as well. The defensive specialist was serving for Missouri during the 8-0 run and never once missed a serve despite two LSU timeouts.
It wasn’t just her serves that helped this team win the crucial set, it was what she brought out in her teammates.
“She has just been lights out in that backcourt,” Sullivan said, “The energy she gives is incredible, it just makes you feel good.”
“We were just staying really present in what we needed to do,” middle blocker Tyrah Arial said, “And Zoey, going on that crazy run [is] not easy to do.”
Freshman Nina Mandovic also made an unexpected impact for the Tigers. The setter checked in the game in the second set and ended first in assists and second in blocks.
Blocks were crucial for Missouri especially in the final set in which they notched nine blocks to LSU’s two. Missouri’s leader in that category was Tyrah Arial who finished the game with seven blocks paired with a third-best 10 kills.
“Everybody else doing their job makes my job easier to just go up and kill,” Arial said, “It felt good.”
Arial was one of the main Tigers posed with the challenge of stopping SEC kill leader Jurnee Robinson. Robinson finished the contest with 21 kills, but was rather quiet towards the end and had a game high eight errors.
LSU’s Nia Washington ranked second in kills with 12 on the evening, but the Tigers held her to a hitting percentage of .158.
Much of the defensive success in the game came courtesy of libero Maya Sands’ 16 digs and Matias-Lopez’s 12.
Following the victory, Mizzou is scheduled to take a quick break from SEC action when they head to Cape Girardeau to take on the SEMO Redhawks Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“SEMO was definitely placed in a space [where] I felt like we could kick it into gear and allow us to find some really good rhythm and take off,” Sullivan said.
Photographer: Jeffrey Calhoun