Assistant coach Molly Taylor, formerly Missouri setter Molly Kreklow, pulled setter Jaden Newsome outside of the team huddle during a timeout and motioned to different positions in front of the 10-foot line.

Throughout the game, Newsome would glance towards Kreklow for guidance. Kreklow occasionally met Newsome at the edge of the court to offer advice or to point out a hole in the LSU defense.

Newsome appeared in just one game during the fall season, making her season debut in a game in which all 13 players on the Missouri roster would see playing time.

“She’s coming in and running an offense for the first time ever,” coach Joshua Taylor said Saturday night. “She’s trained incredibly well.”

On Friday night, Newsome tallied a career-best 48 assists and 11 digs. The statline contrasted with the way she approached the ball tentatively in the spring season opener the night before.

The Missouri setter had three errors at the net and her setter dumps lacked confidence or much force. She approached each attempt as a plea to go over and less as a chance to get the kill. She finished the evening at a .125 hitting percentage.

In the second game against LSU, however, she played like a seasoned Missouri starter.

Newsome began Saturday’s game with much more confidence. The junior confidently dumped the ball just over the net and into the heart of LSU’s defense, which found themselves on their heels time and time again.

She displayed her newfound confidence with six kills on eight attempts and a .750 hitting percentage and commanded the Missouri offense at ease.

“It can be a pretty nerve-racking role to be stepping into, but she’s doing a fantastic job delivering the ball to a bunch of different attackers even in some medium to bad situations,” Taylor said. “It allowed us to be successful offensively.”

Six Missouri players finished the game with five or more kills in Saturday’s five-set win. Newsome found the confidence to set all of her hitters more consistently on Saturday in comparison to Friday, where her sets were more inconsistent and moving around the net to find the best height for her hitters.

Before she went out to have a career afternoon, she first had to find out what each of her teammates’ needs were as hitters. She accomplished this by repeatedly asking questions and having a willingness to improve.

“I was just [asking] them ‘what do you need? What do you need from me?” Newsome said following Friday’s game. “‘How was that ball?’”

By the fifth set on Friday, Newsome’s confidence started to emerge as she finally connected with her hitters. At one point, outside hitter Anna Dixon had earned kills on four of five sets from Newsome.

“I think in that last set I was focused on the defense on the other side,” Dixon said Friday night. “I feel like [Newsome] connected a little bit more in that fifth set.”

On Saturday, Newsome’s sets were closer to the net, better positioned away from the LSU defense and gave her hitters more time to find the opposite lines of the court.

Nerves were not entirely to blame for her reserved approach on Friday. She has led a patch-work Missouri offense so far this spring season.

Both middle blockers, Claudia Dillon and Kenna Sauer made adjustments as starters this spring. Before middle blocker Tyanna Omazic tore her ACL against Kentucky last fall, Dillion and redshirt junior Anna D’Cruz split time in the second middle blocker spot.

After Omazic’s injury, Taylor had to experiment with his roster, and the two starting spots were split between Dillion and outside hitter Sauer.

In the final game of the fall season, Sauer officially made the transition to middle blocker and excelled in her new position, boasting 13 kills, zero errors and a .700 hitting percentage.

Middle blocker is one of the more difficult positions to play, and Sauer is willing to learn.

“I think there’s a learning curve that she will be reaching here shortly,” Taylor said Saturday. “Situationally, maybe at times, she’s not making the best decisions, but she understands that she wants to learn, she wants to grow. I only can see her getting better in that position.”

As both Newsome and Sauer grow in their new positions for the Tigers, there is potential for both to lead the Missouri offense.

For now, though, this weekend series has given Newsome the opportunity to potentially earn a permanent starting spot.

“Right now, she’s earned the starting spot with how hard she’s working in practice and how great of a teammate she’s been,” Taylor said. “If she continues to earn that spot, she will continue to be our starting setter.”

_Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com_