University of Missouri
Mississippi Valley State
No. 15 Mizzou Opens 2014 With Sweep of MVSU
8/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Regan Peltier posted eight kills in the win.
DENTON, Texas - No. 15 Mizzou Volleyball opened its season with a 3-0 (25-7, 25-11, 25-17) win over Mississippi Valley State in the first match of the North Texas Invitational on Friday afternoon (Aug. 29) at the North Texas Volleyball Center. The Tigers have now won their last 35 regular season matches, the nation's longest active streak, and have won their last 19 regular season non-conference matches. Mizzou has also won seven consecutive season-openers and 18 of its last 19 in the opening weekend of play dating back to 2009.
"It's nice to have the first match under our belt," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "You can always tell when the team is ready to get out and play a real opponent and I thought we came in today ready to go and played with a lot of good energy. It was nice to see us play against another team so we can identify things we do well and what we need to improve. We have a tough day tomorrow so we need to recover from this and come back ready to play two good teams tomorrow."
After leading the nation in hitting percentage a year ago, Mizzou picked up right where it left off, hitting .468 in the win. Senior Emily Wilson (Omaha, Neb.) led Mizzou with 10 kills on .500 hitting while classmate Whitney Little (Keller, Texas) added eight kills on .571 hitting. Junior Regan Peltier (Nixa, Mo.) added eight kills on .615 hitting without an error, doing so all in the first two sets. Sophomore Loxley Keala (Kaneohe, Hawaii) added 20 assists, four kills, a pair of aces and three digs and freshman Ali Kreklow (Columbia, Mo.) added 13 assists.
Mizzou won the first set on a well-balanced offensive attack that hit .478 with 13 kills on just 23 attacks. Keala, Peltier and Wilson each tallied three kills while Kan added a pair. Mississippi Valley State hit -.174 in the first set. Mizzou scored the first 11 points of the set and led by as many as 18 in the set (21-3).
The second set began much like the first as Mizzou scored the first six points before MVSU got on the board. The Devillettes got as close as 19-11, but Mizzou scored the final six points of the frame to win, 25-11. Set three was a little closer as MVSU hung tough, but Mizzou's offense was too much as it pulled away for a 25-17 set win, clinching the match.
The Tigers will continue play at the North Texas Invitational tomorrow against Northwestern State at 1 p.m. before playing the host Mean Green at 7 p.m. For all the latest on Mizzou volleyball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouVB.
