The 2025 Missouri Tigers volleyball team is full of new faces. Missouri brought in multiple transfers and freshmen who have proved to be major contributors so far this season. Senior libero Maya Sands, however, is in the midst of her senior season and her third year as a Tiger.
Coming off back-to-back Southeastern Conference Libero of the Year seasons, Sands is on pace for yet another accolade filled year. She currently leads the conference in digs and leads Mizzou in that category by triple digits. The senior hopes to make the most of her final year in black and gold with both individual accolades and team success.
“We’ve had, like, amazing seasons the past two years I’ve been here, and so I think it being my last year, I really just want to make sure it’s, like, something special,” Sands said. “I really want to make sure that I don’t leave, like, any regrets, like, leaving this program.”
Sands has led the Tigers to a 16-8 record. Her importance to this team goes beyond any number on a stat sheet. In her fourth year under head coach Dawn Sullivan, Sands strives to be a leader and set an example for the younger and newer members on the team.
“I’ve really tried to hone in on, like, my leadership skills this year, just with a really brand new team,” Sands said. “I think me, along with, like, our other, like, leadership group, we’ve done a really good job of trying to pull this team together.”
Sands and Sullivan have been together for four years since their time spent at UNLV. Sands took to the transfer portal and followed Sullivan once she took the job at Missouri in 2023. Over the past four years, their relationship and trust in each other have grown tremendously.
During her junior year of high school, Sands made a position change from outside hitter to libero. Sullivan was one of the few coaches who saw that untapped potential in her new position.
“Dawn saw that in me,” Sands said. “Other people didn’t see that … so I just really think it was special that she saw something in me, and she just believed in me in every single step.”
Since the two of them have joined forces, they’ve known nothing but success. In her freshman season at UNLV, Sands and Sullivan won the Mountain West Conference championship and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament. The transition to Columbia has only elevated their success.
The bond that Sullivan and Sands share comes with a lot of tough love, but that fiery coaching style is something Sands feeds off of.
“I’m the type of person where I like having that kind of, like, push, because without it, I don’t think I’d be the player I am,” Sands said.
Sullivan is a demanding coach, often challenging Sands to put in extra effort and be a team leader for the younger players on the team.
“I already kind of have, like, an idea of, like, what her standards are as a coach and what she wants to bring, culture wise,” Sands said. “And so I think a lot of them do, like, look up to us upperclassmen.”
One of those players is freshman libero Zoey Matias-Lopez. In her first year in the program, Matias-Lopez has made a big impact, trailing only Sands in digs. Matias-Lopez has looked up to Sands since before she arrived in Columbia and was not shy about telling her so. The relationship that the two of them have was built on pushing each other to be better, and the similarities that Sands noticed when she was a freshman.
“I know me as a freshman, like, I wanted to get the most, like, extra reps I could,” Sands said. “We’re like the only two on the court while everybody else is, like, warming up.”
Matias-Lopez has embraced her role for this year’s team. She is not a “typical freshman,” as Sands put it.
“Usually freshmen are, like, kind of a little bit scared when they come in, like, unsure of themselves, and still just have to get used to, like, the environment,” Sands said. “But I think she came in right away with, like, a competitor mindset.”
Since joining the team, Sands has taken Matias-Lopez under her wing. Whether that’s coaching her up on serve receive, or knowing when to go get a ball and when to let it go. The trust the two have built has elevated the play of the back row as a whole.
One word that comes to mind when thinking of someone nearing the end of a great career is legacy. Something that Sands thinks about is leaving the program in a better place than she found it, whether that is the product on the court or the relationships and culture that are built off of it. She wants her teammates and coaches to remember her as a hard worker and a great player, but more importantly, she wants to be remembered as someone who her friends can count on to be there after volleyball.
“I just want to be a really great, like, friend and teammate and, like, have lasting relationships with these people,” Sands said. “Because I know they’ve helped me in so many ways, like, just to (be) the person and player I am today.”
Edited by Colin Simmons l [email protected]
Copy edited by Veronica Butler and Ava Mohror | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]
