“That would’ve been a tough week and a half” for coach Wayne Kreklow and the Missouri Tigers.

But it wasn’t.

Sophomore outside hitter Carly Kan bounced back after a rough road trip with a strong first set and an 11-kill, six-dig performance to propel the Tigers to a three-match sweep of the Auburn Tigers.

“It was good to see her bounce back,” Kreklow said. “She has to be that player for us. She doesn’t always have to be great, but she has to be good. She was great tonight.”

Kan had seven kills in the first set, which the Tigers pulled out 25-23.

In the second set, Mizzou held a 21-15 lead, but saw Auburn climb back in late to make it 22-19. Allowing opponents to climb back into sets late has been a recurring issue for Missouri, but the Tigers were able to hang on this time to win the set 25-20.

“We talked about that a lot,” senior middle blocker Whitney Little said. “We saw that Auburn had come back down two sets to beat South Carolina last week, so we made sure not to let up after the second set.”

Missouri came out strong in the third set, winning 25-14 in one of their most dominant sets of the season.

“It great seeing everyone playing at their best at once,” Kreklow said. “We don’t have that one player that can take over, so we need everyone playing as a unit to be our best. That happened tonight.”

The Tigers will travel to Kansas City on Monday to take on UMKC before returning home on Friday to take on the LSU Tigers at Hearnes Center.