Hearnes Center was filled with pink Wednesday night as Missouri volleyball defeated Southeastern Conference opponent Louisiana State 3–0. The Tigers held their annual Dig Pink night for breast cancer awareness as they beat their eighth SEC opponent of the season. Missouri remains undefeated in SEC play.
Missouri (17–3, 8–0) came out attacking in the first set, winning 25–15. LSU (7–13, 2–7) could not keep up, as Missouri had 12 kills on .435 hitting. Big blocks by sophomore Alyssa Munlyn and junior Kira Larson and a set-point tip over the net by junior Courtney Eckenrode helped propel Missouri to a set win.
A fiercer LSU took the court in the second set, as Missouri did not pick up some kills it should have. Nonetheless, the Tigers took the set 25–19 when it took advantage of LSU errors and boasted a strong service game. A powerful Missouri defense held LSU to .062 hitting and only nine kills. In the three sets played, the Missouri defense had a season-high 15 blocks.
The third and final set was the closest one yet, but Missouri held out to win 25–19. Munlyn posted her ninth block of the night, a season high. Carly Kan recorded 12 kills for the night and surpassed 1,500 career kills during the match. Her number of career kills ranks fourth in Missouri volleyball history.
Coach Wayne Kreklow decided to take out junior Melanie Crow, a powerful hitter, and put junior Sydney Deeken in.
“[Crow] played, and we were going to see how it went, and then I thought with a lot of big matches coming up we should rest her,” Kreklow said. “I always hesitate doing that because I’m pretty conservative, but at this point in time she’s taking a ton of swings, and let’s just get Syd out there and have her play a little bit.”
Missouri’s win streak is now at 12. The team sits atop the SEC rankings, but it still has yet to play the next three teams behind it.
Kentucky (No. 2 in the SEC) travels to Columbia on Sunday. Missouri travels to No. 4 Texas A&M in a week, and No. 3 Florida travels to Columbia on Nov. 20.
“It’s going to get tough,” Kreklow said. “At this point, I’m very pleased with the fact that we’ve been able to get these wins now. There’s been years where we’ve stubbed our toe in matches that we should have won, and this year that’s not the case.”
_Edited by Peter Baugh | pbaugh@themaneater.com_
