Missouri players huddle and cheer. VolleyZou screams in excitement. The Tigers have scored yet another point.
For the No. 11 Missouri volleyball team, offense is one of the keys to their success so far in the season.
The Tigers as a whole have an average hitting percentage of .294, and an average of 13.8 kills per set, both among the highest currently in the Southeastern Conference.
“It makes you much tougher to try to stop,” coach Wayne Kreklow said. “And that’s probably one of the biggest differences between this group this year and the group a year ago. We just didn’t have all those options.”
Among these options is freshman Alyssa Munlyn. The middle blocker finished off Saturday’s game against Tennessee with a season-high hitting percentage of .714. Outside hitter Carly Kan averages 4.54 kills per set with an overall hitting percentage of .304.
Besides getting kills, another part of the offense’s job is to block. Players like sophomore Kira Larson, who has transitioned from playing middle blocker to right side, often have trouble adjusting from having to close the block to being a pin blocker and having to put the ball up themselves.
“Hitting wasn’t as big of a change as blocking,” Larson said. “I’m used to just running as fast as I can to the pin blocker and putting up a strong block. When you’re a pin blocker, you have to set up that block. You have to watch the ball and watch the hitter. So there’s a lot more going on. You have to focus a lot more on the other side.”
Along with Larson, junior Julia Towler can hit both right side and middle, giving her flexibility and the ability to switch it up at random times when the other team isn’t expecting it.
The transition seems to have gone smoothly both of them, seeing as they both currently have a .342 hitting percentage and have helped contribute over 60 blocks combined.
Other top offensive players for the team include outside hitter Regan Peltier, who has contributed 129 kills so far.
Setter Courtney Eckenrode also sees the effects of a strong offense. On top of having options to set to every rotation, the opposing team needs to be able to read the block in order in order to prepare for the ball, which doesn’t always happen.
“It’s hard for the other teams’ block to be able to read and know where to go,” Eckenrode said. “And having three options in the front and even one in back row, we’re hard to stop.”
Having all these offensive options gives the Tigers more leeway when a player is having an off night and an extra competitive edge over less offense-driven teams, helping contribute to their No. 11 ranking.
“We’ve got some decent size at the net, so that presents some challenges for the opposing teams a little bit,” Kreklow said. “We’re not locked into, ‘if this person or that person is having an off night we’re in trouble,’ because now I think we have some options. We have more people and it gives us more things that we can do.”
