Five different women played a big role in the win. Four of them had at least seven kills, and one set a new career high in assists. When they played Lindenwood University on Sunday, it was their biggest game of the weekend. They won 3-1 (25-17, 25-16, 22-25, 25-13).
The Tigers were behind 5-1 early in the first set, which looked like it would be easy for Lindenwood. But that didn’t last long because Mizzou answered with a four-point run, led by senior Jordan Iliff’s first of 13 kills that would put him in first place on the team.
Even though the Tigers went on a run, Lindenwood kept going strong, taking back the lead and keeping it until the Tigers finally won 14–13. When Mizzou took the lead, that was all they needed to get going. They won 13 of the last 17 points in the first set to win 25–17.
At first, Mizzou worked well together as a group. Only in the first set did Iliff get six kills, and grad student Mychael Vernon got four. Marina Crownover, a redshirt junior, also had a great start to her career night with 11 assists in the set.
“I have full confidence in everybody on the front line and know that whenever I put the ball up, they’re going to put it down for me,” said Crownover. “We needed to take care of what we needed to, and once we started doing that, that’s how we separated ourselves.”
In the second set, things went in a similar way, but this time the Tigers took the lead early and never gave it up. They were only behind for a short time when the score was 3-2. A good mix of service errors (four), attack mistakes (five), kills (13), and aces (four) made up the set.
The team started to lose in the third set. They stayed in the game and fought hard, but they lost the set by only three points. They only lost one set all weekend. As the set came to a close, the Lions won six of the last eight points, setting themselves up for a comeback.
“Sometimes we’re up and down, and we need to keep our foot on the gas,” head coach Dawn Sullivan said after the game. “I think our team understands that and just how consistent we can be with it.”
That made them pay attention, and they played well in the fourth set. The Lions put up some early fight, but then Mizzou took off, scoring 10 points in a row and building a huge lead. They won the match in the fourth set.
Colleen Finney, a senior, said after the game, “We are a really strong team when it comes to ourselves.” “As long as we keep having fun and generating a lot of energy within ourselves, we’re in a better position.”
The team is going to Nashville for the Lipscomb Tournament. On Thursday at 6 p.m., they will play their first game against Lipscomb University.