Volleyball opens Tiger Invite with victory
It was a day of clean sweeps at the Tiger Invitational.
Ole Miss beat Texas State early in the day, BYU defeated Ole Miss and Missouri took down Texas State for the last match of the day at the Hearnes Center.
With three more matches on Saturday, the title is still up for grabs and it may come down to the last match of the tournament.
The Tigers came out nervous for their late match on Friday, but defeated the Texas State Bobcats 25-22.
Missouri started slow in the first set, going down 5-1 before storming back and not trailing for the rest of the match.
Senior Lei Wang-Francisco was solid at the setter position, notching 26 assists and a .273 hitting percentage with three kills on 11 total attacks and 12 digs.
The home team was noticeably anxious for the first match of the season and lacked rhythm throughout.
Coach Wayne Kreklow noticed his team’s nervousness and attributed some of the mistakes to those emotions and the process of looking for a lineup that could find a rhythm.
“We were switching people in and out a lot trying to look for combinations that might work.” Kreklow said. “It’s kind of what we expected from the first match.”
Missouri will be facing larger, more physical teams on Saturday with Ole Miss at noon and BYU for the last match of the invitational.
Kreklow made it clear the most important improvement the Tigers will need to make on Saturday.
“Offense,” Kreklow said. “We had flashes where I felt we were in rhythm. Things weren’t really flowing. A .149 hitting percentage is not going to get it.”
Be sure to follow @ManeaterSports on Twitter on Saturday for updates from the match.
