September 7, 2014

Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow had but one question: can you please stop doing this?

“Can you please stop doing this?” Kreklow asked after the Tigers’ stressful five-set win over the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday night.

As has been the case often this season, the match was not without its share of scary moments for Kreklow.

Like they had all weekend at the Tiger Invitational, the Tigers dropped the first set to the Musketeers 25-19 and saw most of their offensive statistics sitting in the same range as they did against Oakland earlier in the day. And as they had all weekend, the Tigers were neck and neck with their opponent until the score reached the teens, at which point the Musketeers took the lead and never looked back.

The Tigers bounced back to tie things up in the second set, downing the Musketeers 25-21. Xavier made a late rally to make things interesting, but after taking a timeout, the Tigers proceeded to finish things off.

After the break, the Tigers came out strong and held a lead from the very beginning. However, the Musketeers fought back to make it 18-18, proceeded to win the set, and put the Tigers’ backs against the wall.

But the newly-dubbed slogan for the 2014 season was “Whatever It Takes (#WIT),” and the Tigers were willing to do just that in order to pull out a tournament-closing win.

A competitive fourth set saw six ties, with Xavier leading for much of the early portion of the round. However, a Mizzou team which had its mental toughness questioned this weekend managed to flip the switch and put together a solid performance late to pull out the 25-20 set victory.

The Tigers had every reason to be doubting themselves in the fifth set, as the Musketeers scored four straight points and Mizzou had one of its own overturned. However, the team came out of a timeout mentally focused and fired off 11 straight points to take a commanding lead late. Xavier rallied to make it 13-8, but the Tigers were able to close it out and end the weekend on a high note.

“If you’re going to compete at any level, whether it’s for a championship, [making] the NCAA Tournament, whatever it is, you have to be able to weather the ups and downs and the adversity,” Kreklow said. “You have to have enough confidence and poise.”

Following the victory, the Tigers will look to string together their first two-game winning streak of the season on Tuesday when they play host to the St. Louis Billikens. They will then travel to to the Idaho Invitational for more tournament-style play next weekend.

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