The defending Southeastern Conference champion Missouri volleyball squad took the court at Hearnes Center on Wednesday night for their 15th annual Black and Gold game, an intrasquad scrimmage meant to help the team prepare for the upcoming season.

The game was concluded after two sets, with the Gold and Black teams each winning a set. While score was kept, coach Wayne Kreklow emphasized the event’s purpose was “integrating some of the new people.”

The scrimmage was run in an unstructured style, with players moving back and forth between the two teams.

Freshmen Alexa Armendariz, Sydney Deeken and Ali Kreklow each saw their first action in Tiger uniforms, while preseason All-SEC picks senior Whitney Little and sophomore Carly Kan led a group of returning Tigers looking to shake off some rust and get in sync with their new teammates.

Ali Kreklow played a key role in the Tigers’ offensive rotation, posting 12 assists between the game’s two sets. She finished second only to sophomore Loxley Keala, who led all players with 18 assists in her first game action as the Tigers’ primary setter.

Keala takes over for departed senior Molly Kreklow.

Keala said the objective of the scrimmage was for the team to focus on cleaning up “the little things.”

“We just took it as a practice,” Keala said. “I thought we did great.”