The Missouri Tigers came into last weekend’s Idaho Nike Invitational with four wins. They leave the University of Idaho having doubled that total.
Having been plagued by inconsistent play through their first eight matches, the Tigers finally managed to flip a switch and string together consistent play en route to four straight wins and their first winning streak of the season.
“I am proud of how this group came together this weekend,” Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow said in a press relase. “We had a tough go of things last week at home and we had a long week of travel and matches and the kids did a great job of coming together and playing as a team.”
Prior to the weekend, the Tigers were a group that was still working on coming together as a team. Having lost key pieces from last season to graduation, new leaders still needed to emerge and new-look roster needed to gel.
“We have to be more consistent,” Kreklow said prior to the weekend. “We don’t have Molly (Kreklow) and Lisa (Henning) to lead us around. It’s going to take time to find someone who can do that.”
However, it didn’t take as much time as Wayne may have anticipated. Mizzou played some of their best volleyball of the season in this weekend’s four-game span. While they may not have their clear-cut leader yet, the Tigers certainly were more consistent this weekend.
After struggling heavily with strong starts coming into the weekend, the Tigers came out ready to play in all four games of the tournament, winning all four first sets they played.
After his Missouri squad struggled at times in the Tiger Invitational, Kreklow said, “I don’t think we prepare well mentally for games.” But after dropping just four sets across the entire weekend in Idaho, that stigma seems have changed.
Perhaps the most mentally challenging moment for the Tigers this weekend was when they faced a winner-take-all fifth set against the Idaho Vandals. After taking a 2-1 lead in the third set, the Tigers watched the Vandals tie things up with a 25-19 win in the fourth set. Things were close early on in the final set, but the Tigers managed to rattle off five of the final seven points to win 15-10.
“The way we battled all night was very encouraging and we did a lot of things well,“ Kreklow said of the performance. “I thought our pin hitters did a great job and we really did a great job of keeping the foot on the gas in the fifth set. Twelve of our 15 points in set five were kills — that is phenomenal.”
Outside hitters Emily Wilson and Carly Kan were both named to the All-Tournament team, with Wilson leaving with Tournament MVP honors. Both players set career highs in kills (22) and digs (23), respectively, in the team’s tournament-opening win over the Vandals, with Wilson posting multiple 20-kill performances over the weekend.
“I am happy for Emily,” Kreklow said in a news release. “She played really well all weekend. I hope we can build on this when we head to Miami and hopefully we have a good week of practice to build off of what we did here in Idaho.”
The Tigers will wrap up non-conference play this weekend at the Miami Invitational with a doubleheader against the UNC Greensboro Spartans and Miami Hurricanes on Sept. 20. They then open conference play against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the Hearnes Center on Sept. 26.
