When the women’s volleyball team departed Columbia for Kansas City International Airport last week en route to Nashville for the Lipscomb Invitational, the pre-dawn awakening was especially rude to freshman hitter Regan Peltier.
One of two freshmen on the Tigers’ roster, Peltier didn’t get to pick her own roommate. She didn’t get to drive her car to the airport. She didn’t even have a guarantee that she would see playing time — only a hunch.
With sophomore hitter Taylor Simpson suffering from back spasms, a void appeared in the Missouri starting lineup and coach Wayne Kreklow turned to Peltier as a possible stand-in. She had practiced with the starters in the days leading up to the tournament.
“I had told (my parents) during practice that I had been getting reps on the A side,” Peltier said. “And so they said, ‘If there’s any possibility, we’re going to come watch you. Even if you sit on the bench, we’ll still be there for you.’”
Junior setter Molly Kreklow, however, contends that Peltier’s first-team reps in practice were no mistake. Peltier earned her stripes by improving her transition game and keeping good tempo on the court.
“The whole week in practice she played well and did a really nice job for us,” Molly Kreklow said. “We were running a faster tempo. We’ve been trying that the past week or two, and she’s been connecting really well with that. She’s ready for the faster sets which has been really great.”
Yet in the days leading up to the Tigers’ first tournament match against Houston, Peltier was still uncertain as to how much playing time she would receive. Junior hitter Lisa Henning is a preseason all-Southeastern Conference juggernaut who gets the majority of swings for Missouri. Sophomore hitter Emily Wilson started 24 of the Tigers’ 34 matches last year. Peltier seemed like the odd one out.
Even during Missouri’s romping wins over North Florida and Nicholls State in the Tiger Invitational, Peltier only played in three sets combined. As fellow freshman Lydia Ely hosted her coming-out party in a win over Virginia Tech — contributing four kills and a block on .429 hitting — Peltier remained stationed by the bright orange Gatorade cooler at the end of the bench.
“It’s hard to be the one on the bench that’s not getting in, but I was very happy for her because we’ve both been together on this and we’re both roommates and we both know how bad we want to be able to be in there and play,” Peltier said.
Still, she said, biding her time as an underclassman is a stressful process.
“As a freshman it’s hard, especially coming from a high school or a club team where you’re the number one player,” she said. “So you come back here and it’s kind of like a humbling reality check … It’s hard to realize that you’re not good enough to be out there. And then sitting there and seeing all those people and thinking, ‘That should be me.’ But it’s not.”
With Simpson’s services limited, Wayne Kreklow penciled Peltier into the starting lineup in the tournament’s first match against Houston and the Nixa, Mo., native responded with a career-high 12 kills on .667 hitting and three blocks. She notched 11 more kills and two more blocks the next day in non-starting roles against Lipscomb and Appalachian State, ending the weekend with 23 kills and five blocks and a whopping .432 hitting percentage.
If teams were allowed more than three spots on the all-tournament team, Peltier could have been a selection. The tournament’s coaches had already selected Henning, Molly Kreklow and sophomore blocker Whitney Little as the Tigers’ three all-stars.
“It’s really weird to think about (the tournament team) because I’m going from not getting in in the Virginia Tech game into starting and possibly getting on to the all-tournament team,” Peltier said. “It’s crazy.”
