The postgame press conference was a struggle for senior libero Sarah Meister. Her voice was almost gone.
“Very gone,” she said with a smile, clearly straining to deliver her words. “I don’t think I’ve ever yelled so much in a game.”
Meister acted almost as a coach on the court for the Tigers during the match, calling out plays and getting players set on before each serve.
On a young team with 10 underclassmen, the talk has been that Missouri lacks a true leader. But with Sunday’s performance against the Xavier Musketeers, Meister may have taken a step toward filling that role.
Meister converted 11 straight serves with Mizzou trailing 4-0 in the fifth set. The Tigers went on to win the set and match.
“That was a really, really phenomenal performance,” Tigers coach Wayne Kreklow said of Meister’s fifth set. “We’ve been doing this a lot of years, and I’d have to say that ranks right up there with just a really stellar, gutty performance in a Game 5.”
With the team struggling mentally, Meister’s ability to dial in and focus in a clutch situation against Xavier might just be the beginning of a mental shift for the team as a whole.
“I was kind of mad, and kind of had this rage,” Meister said. “But it was controlled at the same time. I knew I needed to put some pressure on this team, because that was the only way we’re going to win.”
After eight points, the Tigers switched sides, but Meister managed to keep it going. She attributes her mental toughness to a special technique.
“It’s a refocus method,” she said. “You see, when I serve, I bounce the ball, really have to zone everything out. I have to do that every time and refocus in order to continue serving.”
Kreklow said Meister’s consistent accuracy was remarkable.
“The name of the game at that point is that you want to make the other team earn their way out of a little hole, and she did a phenomenal job of keeping the pressure on,” Kreklow said.
Meister’s teammates were impressed with her performance as well.
The season is still young, and Kreklow said the team is still looking for a leader. But more performances like the one on Saturday could find Meister filling that role fairly quickly.
“Her serve is very powerful, so sometimes it’s hard to control that,” sophomore middle blocker Emily Thater said. “And she controlled it on every point and that was a game-changer.”