Missouri volleyball delivered a 3-1 victory over Louisiana State University on Oct. 19, winning the battle between Tigers at the Hearnes Center. Here are three key takeaways from their thrilling victory.
Tyrah Ariail’s clutch gene
Middle blocker Tyrah Ariail was everywhere against LSU, especially down the stre
tch. Of the redshirt senior’s 10 kills in the contest, seven came after the 15-point mark had been hit by at least one team.
The University of Southern California transfer shut the door on the Bayou Tigers in back-to-back sets. Her clutch kill in the third set put Missouri up 26-25, ending a 10-point deficit and giving the Tigers a 27-25 set win. Ariail also scored the 23rd and 25th points of the fourth set that secured a Missouri victory.
Ariail was a force on defense as well, recording a game-high seven blocks and serving as a big deterrent to LSU’s junior outside hitter Jurnee Robinson, who was killing Missouri early on in the contest.
Ariail’s servant leadership role on the team allows her to come up big when it matters most in these tight Southeastern Conference matchups.
“If that means I can take the weight off of some of the outsides and kill a ball when it needs to be killed, or just kind of do the tough things that, to me, is service to my team,” Ariail said. “I love being in tough situations.”
Along with being second on the team with 73 blocks and third on the team with 155 kills, Ariail provides a clutch factor to the Tigers that can’t be understated. Come postseason time, Ariail’s ability to rise to the occasion in tight sets like against LSU could be the difference between moving on or going home.
Staying strong at the net
Coming into this matchup, all eyes were expected to be on Robinson, the SEC’s current kill leader. The 2024 SEC First-teamer was a force early on, recording 18 kills in the first three sets which left Missouri’s head coach Dawn Sullivan perplexed.
“I thought early on, we let them kind of get out of control and let them score well,” Sullivan said.
Faced with a 22-12 deficit in the third set, the largest of the match, Missouri was forced to call a timeout. Coming out of the break, Missouri showed a much sharper approach to counter spike attempts, going up strong and with tenacity.
“I was really impressed with the way our team reset their minds,” Sullivan said. “We’re just like, hey, we’ve got to get close, we’ve got to slow them down, and then we can play our game around that.”
Multiple-block rallies slowly but surely shifted momentum to Missouri’s side in the third, and the Tigers eventually erased the 10-point deficit, winning the third set 27-25.
Ten total blocks in the fourth set secured a 25-19 Missouri victory, behind a strong defensive switch-flip from the Tigers.
While Robinson ended with 21 kills on a .271 hitting percentage, she was certainly more limited after the timeout in the third, only recording four kills throughout the rest of the match. Missouri’s defensive stand was a big reason for the win.
Identity in the SEC
Missouri has played teams tightly all season. However, after three straight SEC victories and an improbable comeback in the third set that fans haven’t seen Missouri pull off yet this year, it seems like the Tigers’ identity is forming.
“I think we’re really just good at not giving up,” Ariail said. “You can’t count us out, no matter what day it is.”
It’s not just that third set either — Missouri played a total of 11 sets against Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU. Five of them were decided by three points or less, and Missouri won four of them.
The ability to start taking these sets has sent the Tigers back to .500 in conference play on the season and towards a new mindset when matches come down to the wire.
“We didn’t know the score, we just knew our assignments and that we needed to take it a point at a time,” Ariail said. “We were talking about, ‘OK, this is what I’m going to do right here, right now,’ so we’re just staying really present in what we needed to do.”
It’s not perfect, by any means. But it’s a start. With more SEC play coming up, the Tigers will get to show how resilient they really are.
Missouri resumed play on Oct. 22 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks.