By Lauren Rosenberg 

The Missouri Tigers season will continue on December 6 when they travel west to Nebraska to face the University of Northern Iowa for the first round of the 2019 NCAA Volleyball tournament, copping their fifth straight tournament bid. 

Joining Missouri, Northern Iowa and hosts No. 5 Nebraska is Ball State. 

If this site sounds familiar, you’re correct. Missouri reached the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament where they upset Arizona in the first round and were defeated by Nebraska in the second round.

Northern Iowa will be coming into the tournament with a 24-10 record while Missouri will be coming in with a 21-7 record.

Missouri and Northern Iowa met at the beginning of the season at the Mizzou Invitational in September where the Tigers defeated the Panthers 3-1. 

The Panthers ended the invitational with a 2-2 record while Missouri would go 4-0 and win the invitational.

Leketor Member-Meneh, Kylie Deberg and Tyanna Omazic dominated the Panthers with 12, 18 and 11 kills respectively. Andrea Fuentes copped a double-double, recording 40 assists and 17 digs.

On the other hand, Karli Taylor recorded 12 kills. Abbi Staack and Taylor Hedges recorded 17 and 12 digs respectively. Rachael Koop recorded a double-double with 10 digs and 30 assists.

Northern Iowa will try to seek redemption for their loss to Missouri but with the Tigers core in Member-Meneh, Omazic, Dariana Hollingsworth-Santana and Deberg, it will be a hard task for UNI to advance to the second round.

Edited by Emma Moloney | ehm3gd@mail.missouri.edu