Tigers finish 2-1 at American Classic
The Missouri volleyball team almost didn’t bounce back after the loss on Friday evening in the American Volleyball Classic.
The Tigers weren’t at their best early against Villanova on Saturday afternoon, but the defense rallied back after dropping the first set and Missouri went on to a 3-2 win over the Wildcats.
Five Tigers tallied double-digit digs as senior libero Priscilla Armendariz led the back row with 19. Four players had career-best dig numbers, including freshmen Katie O’Brien, Sarah Meister and Whitney Little. The Tigers marked 104 digs in all, the highest number of digs put up by the team since 2003 and the second highest since the rally scoring era.
Offensively, freshman outside hitter Emily Wilson had a career-best 20 kills while sophomore outside hitter Lisa Henning contributed 15. Henning also put up 18 digs. Sophomore setter Molly Kreklow recorded her first double-double match. She had 41 assists and a team best 22 digs during the victory.
In the evening match against American University, the Tigers continued rolling in a 3-1 victory.
Kreklow once again pulled off a double-double performance highlighted by 46 assists. The defense put up big numbers again as well, tallying 75 total digs on the match. Henning led the Tigers with 19 kills on .311 hitting, earning a spot on the All-Tournament team. Joining her was senior middle blocker Brittany Brimmage after contributing 12 kills on .417 hitting in the evening match. Little displayed her best numbers on the season thus far, pounding out a career-best 11 kills with a .667 hitting average and mixing in three blocks.
The team will go into Wednesday’s match-up with a 13-3 record. The contest against Iowa State will start off the Big 12 conference season and will be nationally televised on ESPNU.