Sunday’s match against Tennessee marked Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow’s 1,000th career match as a head volleyball coach.

He had no idea.

“Guess I’ve been doing this a long time,” he said earlier in the week.

The Tigers won Kreklow’s 1,000th match, sweeping the Volunteers to move to 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play on the season. But that wasn’t Kreklow’s only milestone game in the week.

The previous Saturday marked Kreklow’s 300th match at the helm of the Tigers, a winning effort against North Carolina–Greensboro.

“He’s such a positive coach,” senior middle blocker Whitney Little said. “We work with (a) sports psychologist and … it’s really cool to see Wayne put (what we learn) into use.

“My friends on other teams always tell me how their coaches use (negative reinforcement), but Wayne’s a very positive coach and I think that’s a big reason why this team and past teams have rallied behind him.”

In Kreklow’s tenure at Mizzou, the Tigers have made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, two Sweet Sixteen appearances, and one Elite Eight appearance. The Tigers also went undefeated in the regular season last year, claiming Mizzou’s first SEC title.

“Overall, I think (I’ve) been really happy with what’s going on,” Kreklow said of his time at Mizzou. “We’ve been very lucky; we’ve had great kids, great players and support is really good.”

For personal accolades, Kreklow has five NAIA Regional Coach of the Year awards, two NAIA National Coach of the Year awards, two American Midwest Coach of the Year awards and an SEC Coach of the Year award to his name.

“Wayne always does a good job of keeping us calm and telling us what we need to know,” sophomore middle blocker Emily Thater said. “He doesn’t sugarcoat anything, he doesn’t talk about anything that doesn’t need to be talked about. I think that’s really important.”

This year marks Kreklow’s 15th season on the Tigers’ bench. Before coming to Missouri, he coached at Columbia College.

During all 15 of his years at Mizzou, Wayne Kreklow has had his wife Susan by his side. Susan Kreklow is currently the team’s director of volleyball operations. While they’ve already been here for 15 years, Mizzou’s best power couple doesn’t sound like they have intentions of leaving anytime soon.

“People always say, ‘You guys have been there for so long,’ but honestly you couldn’t really ask for a better place,” Wayne Kreklow said. “We’ve been pleased and it’s gone fast, I can tell you that.”