Missouri volleyball fell to Kansas State 2-3 in an exhibition match Saturday.
“An exhibition matchup like this against a competitive program in Kansas State will prove extremely valuable for us,” coach Joshua Taylor said in a press release. “We’re continuing to work on a lot of things ahead of our season opener in San Juan.”
The Tigers dropped the opening set 22-25, but quickly bounced back, winning the next two 25-14 and 25-21. Missouri’s offense hit .462 and .409 in the second and third sets, respectively. Kansas State took the fourth set 25-21 to force a decisive fifth set. The Wildcats won the match with 15-11 victory in the final set.
As a team, Missouri hit .305 with 64 kills. Junior Kylie Deberg led the Tigers offense. The preseason All-SEC honoree posted 25 kills while hitting .442. Juniors Leketor Member-Meneh and Tyanna Omazic tallied 14 and 11 kills, respectively. Redshirt sophomore Andrea Fuentes had 53 assists, while freshman Leandra Mangual-Duran produced 17 digs.
“Today in Manhattan, I was really pleased with our serving,” Taylor said. “We totaled 12 aces between six individuals. Our offense as a whole I think did well too. We opened the match with three consecutive .300-plus hitting sets. We’ll continue to work on improving our game this week in Columbia and be ready for our trip to Puerto Rico.”
The Tigers will start the regular season this weekend as they head to San Juan, Puerto Rico for matches against George Mason and Miami in the Puerto Rico Invitational.
_Edited by Emily Leiker | eleiker@themaneater.com_
