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Here's the second match of the night involving a heretofore unbeaten, as the Missouri Tigers enter tonight's action at 19-0. The Lady Vols are in an undeniable rebuilding year, as most of their roster departed from last season, via transfer or graduation. About the only major holdover they have from last year is Ellen Mullins, the nation's dig leader at over six per set this season. She and outside hitter Whitney Heeres are the only seniors on the club, giving them eyes for the future.
It took a little while for anyone to really notice Missouri this season. They only just cracked the national poll this past week, checking in at #25. It's true, they haven't played an especially tough scedule and they've played a lot of home matches, but they entered tonight with the chance to improve to 20-0 on the year. And that means something. They're one of the top offensive teams in the nation, top ten in basically every category (#1 in kills per set, #2 in assists per set, #3 in attack percentage). They don't play a lot of long rallies. Tennessee, as exemplified by Mullins, are just about the exact opposite sort of team, setting up an interesting contrast in styles on the court tonight.
Missouri started their night off pretty predictably, sending the first attack the way of their leading scorer Lisa Henning. She didn't disappoint, easily finding the floor. Missouri setter Molly Kreklow then touched off a little service run, including an ace to bring the Tigers to a 3-nil lead before Tennessee finally got on the board. The Lady Vols got back within a point at 4-3 as the Tiger offence just completely broke down, with too tight a pass to the net leading to a set to…well, nowhere. Emily Wilson found the floor for Missouri to keep Tennessee from drawing even. 5-3 was a long rally, with Henning eventually terminating. The hit looked long, but the flagger called it in. A let-serve off the tape for Emily Thater led to an awkward set on the Tennessee side, making it 7-3. A perfectly-placed serve for an ace gave the Tigers a five-point lead on 8-3.
Some great blocking touched off a run for the Lady Vols, with Heeres' right-side solo making it 8-6. On the next rally, Henning hit way long, and the Lady Vols were right back in the match. Then the teams traded three-point runs, each of them aided by opposition errors, leading to 11-10. The rally on 12-10 was long, ending with a sneaky little left-hand tip by Tennessee setter Lexi Dempsey. A lift was then called against Missouri, tying the set at 12-all. The enormous jump-serve for Sarah Meister led to a difficult pass on the Tennessee side, in turn leading to an easily dug hit and service point in response for the Tigers. Ashley Mariani found the floor on another long rally at 14-12 to side Meister out off the service line. A back-row fault against Henning brought us even again at 14-all. The Tigers then sided out to bring us to the media timeout at 15-14.
A cross-court kill for Henning put the Tigers up two coming out of the timeout. On 16-14, Mariani tried to send over a free ball with a forehand push rather than a bump, and paid the price as she was whistled for a double hit. An ace for Kreklow made it 18-14, and Tennessee called a charged timeout.
The Lady Vols went for a slide attack to the right side coming out of the timeout, and Shealyn Kolosky hit well long, putting the Tigers up five. Mariani found the floor on 19-15 to make it a three-point set, and a kill from the middle got them to within two. Finally, Carly Kan sided out to get Missouri to 20, at 20-17. A setting miscue against Tennessee gave the Tigers a four-point lead again. But just that quickly, Tennessee got within a point again, on 21-20. Missouri's passing looked a little shaky as the set wore on, as they had to return free balls much more often than I'm sure they cared to. A dodgy pass on Mariani's jump-float serve led to an overpass and easy kill for the Lady Vols, and it was timeout Missouri on 21-20.
Coming back from the timeout, the Tigers went to Thater, and her middle attack was ruled long. Replays showed the call was likely incorrect — the ball looked well in. Undeterred, the Tigers sided out on 22-21. The potentially crucial 22-all rally went to Missouri, with Whitney Little terminating. With Henning due to serve, Tennessee called their last timeout. The Missouri serve after the timeout drilled the net. The 23-all rally ended with a wide hit from the Tiger left side. They expected a touch to be called, but there wasn't one. They called timeout facing set point on service reception.
The Tigers got their sideout from the middle attack, and we went off to extras. The Lady Vols had a shot to win the set, digging a much-too-easy Tiger hit on 25-24, but couldn't terminate on their return attempt. The next Tiger hit was emphatically stronger, and rebounded off the Lady Vol defender and out for the kill. On 25-all, Henning hit off the solo block and out for a service point on the Missouri side, giving the Tigers a set point. They didn't have to work too hard for it, as the first-ball attack from Tennessee found only the net, giving set 1 to Missouri.
Henning and Little started the Tigers off strong in set 2, with powerful kills from them both to open the scoring. After a Tennessee sideout, Wilson added an even more powerful kill. The phrase "boom goes the dynamite" comes to mind when watching this Missouri offence. The Tigers', surprisingly, first block of the night extended them to a 4-1 lead. Then the two sides evenly exchanged points for a little while.
The Tigers extended to a four-point lead on 8-4, as some dodgy passing on the Lady Vol side resulted in a rough set way off the left pin. The outside hitter tried to get it back over legally, but couldn't. A double block for Julia Towler and Emily Wilson made it a five-point lead for Missouri on 10-5. Wilson then added a block-out kill for 11-5, as the Tigers seized control. Surprisingly, Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick kept his timeouts in his back pocket. Finally, when Mariani hit well long to extend Missouri to a 7-point lead, he expended one.
The hits just kept coming, as Towler easily found the floor from the right side to make it an 8-point set. Kan's service run continued on further, as the lead reached 14-5, 15-5, 16-5, 17-5, 18-5 as the front line for Missouri just dominated. The crowd sat on their hands. Tennessee expended their last timeout when the deficit reached 13. They just looked overmatched. The run continued after the timeout as Dempsey got whistled for a net fault as she went up for a joust. To their credit, the Lady Vols never packed it in, playing a long, tenacious rally on 19-5, but that one too went to the Tigers. At long last, the Lady Vols sided out on 20-6, ending Kan's mammoth service run.
The Lady Vols played out the string mostly sideout for sideout, but of course the damage was long since done. The Tigers reached set point at a practically unthinkable 24-9. They put it away on reception, meaning the Lady Vols at least managed to reach double figures.
Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow (Molly's uncle) was interviewed as the teams headed to their locker rooms. Here's a slightly out-of-context quote to file under 'damning with faint praise' – "Game two was a little better."
He was talking about execution of a specific area (exactly which, I didn't catch), but suffice it to say, saying that the second was "a little" better for Missouri than the first is quite an understatement.
Kan, who went on the massive service run in set 2 that broke the game wide open, started off on serve for the Tigers to begin the 3rd. This time the Lady Vols sided her out after two, but it was still a good start for the Tigers to take the lead on serve. A hitting miscue on the Tiger side knotted the set at 3-3, and another gave the Lady Vols their first lead since set 1 on 4-3. A third in a row made it 5-3 Tennessee. A ball handling fault called on Tennessee setter Dempsey gave the Tigers their sideout. At 5-4, Henning found the floor on kind of a bizarre hit from right-back, while the setter was centre-front. A very atypical back set, but it worked. But the Lady Vols took four of the next five, the last a net fault whistled against the Tigers to make it 9-6, and Missouri coach Kreklow called time.
The Tigers subbed in Regan Peltier coming out of the timeout, and she got her first kill of the night on her first swing, siding Missouri out for 9-7. Henning added a service winner on the next rally, and Missouri were back within a point. The rally on 10-9 was the longest of the night, eventually going to Tennessee as Heeres' long hit found hands on its way to the parquet. Suddenly, though, Missouri got three on the bump to take their first lead since early in the set at 12-11. And the block party began for the Tigers, as double blocks on the left, and up the middle extended Missouri to a 14-11 lead. Tennessee coach Patrick again kept his timeouts in his back pocket, and his team got their necessary sideout on 14-12. But Henning's sneaky line shot on 15-12 completely caught the Lady Vol defence off-guard, staking Missouri to a four-point lead. At that, Patrick used a timeout.
A service ace for Kan put the Tigers up five, before the Lady Vols sided out on 17-13. A service error from Megan Hatcher kept Missouri up five, and then Meister went back and smacked a huge jump-serve. That led to an overpass by Tennessee and an easy Missouri kill. The story was pretty much the same on the 19-13 rally, putting the Tigers up seven. Little's kill put Missouri up 21-13, and Tennessee expended their last timeout of the night.
Mariani got the Lady Vols the sideout with a block-out kill to make it 21-14, and Kolosky added a kill from the middle attack to bring Tennessee within six. A slow-developing play on 21-15 led to Mariani hitting straight into the double block, for Missouri's sideout. A massive kill for Henning from the pipe, off her own serve, re-established Missouri's eight-point lead, putting them on the cusp of match point. Another on the next rally got us there, and a net fault against the Lady Vols ended the action for the night.
#25 Missouri d. Tennessee (27-25, 25-10, 25-16)
As far as the night's result, this was pretty predictable, but the trajectory of the match was very weird. Set one was amazingly competitive — Missouri certainly weren't the obvious better team in that set. Then set two was an absolute bloodletting. Then set three, it was kinda both. It started off hyper-competitive before Missouri pulled away near the end.
It was a nice night for Carly Kan, who in addition to her long service run in set 2 also recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. And on the whole for Missouri, tonight was a good example of the fact that just because a team usually don't play long rallies, that doesn't mean they can't. Low dig totals are often just a 'symptom' of first-ball sideouts; you can't rack up digs if you terminate (and the inverse of course is also true). Missouri libero Meister had 20 digs tonight, an outstanding total for a three-set match. Tennessee's Mullins had 15, which is still pretty good, but well off her season average. In the team battle, Missouri out-dug Tennessee 61-56. So are Missouri offensive-minded? Yes. Single-minded? No.
Kan's 10 kills came on an errorless 29 swings, for a sparkly .345 attack efficiency. Henning was pretty efficient, too, with her 15 kills leading all scorers (she went 15/5/37, for .270 — nothing wrong with that). The Tigers as a team ended the night with a massive 52 kills, a staggering total for three sets, only one of which went just slightly into extras.
I'd say Missouri will be most vulnerable in a slugfest. If they match up with another offensively-minded team like themselves, well a) that's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun to watch, and b) it'll come down to simple execution. I don't think there's any way that a team like Tennessee, a team who lack any real bopper on the front line, could beat them. Even if they had snuck away with that first set, I've little doubt the match would have gone on to end 3-1 Missouri.
20-0 is very impressive, but I think the Tigers have work yet to do if they want to end up hosting in December. Missouri now head home for three straight, first on Sunday night against Alabama. Tennessee, who have won just one set in SEC play, will host Arkansas also on Sunday night.
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