It was a year of firsts for the Mizzou volleyball program. Led by the senior dynamic duo of setter Molly Kreklow and outside hitter Lisa Henning, the Tigers put together the most memorable season in program history in what may have been head coach Wayne Kreklow’s finest job at the helm of the program. The year culminated in a perfect 34-0 regular season, the school’s first ever Southeastern Conference Championship and an array of national awards as Mizzou had a banner year behind a total team effort.
With nearly every success story, there are usually hardships that precede the remarkable accomplishments and for the 2013 Mizzou volleyball team, their hardship was the 2012 season. In 2012, the Tigers were coming off of their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and were the youngest team in the NCAA Tournament the previous season. Expectations were high, but the first year in the Southeastern Conference took its toll on the Tigers as they finished a disappointing 19-12 and 10-10 in league play, missing the NCAA Tournament. For Molly Kreklow and Henning, they were determined not to miss the tournament in 2013.
“At Mizzou, we have created an expectation that at the very least, we will be playing in NCAA Tournaments every year,” Henning told reporters before the 2013 season. “Missing the tournament in 2012 has left us very bitter and we are going to play like we have something to prove this season.”
And the Tigers played like they had ‘Something to Prove’ as that saying became the team’s mantra in 2013. The team donned wristbands with the saying, a sign was placed in the home tunnel with the wording and each player adopted the hashtag #STP on social media. It was a uniting factor for the team. After breezing their way to four wins and a Tiger Invitational Tournament title in the opening weekend of play, it was clear that the Tigers had exorcised the demons of 2012. Kreklow earned Tournament MVP honors, a precursor for things to come for the Tiger setter.
If there was a defining win for the Tiger program early in the season, it came the next weekend at the Yale Invitational. After winning a 3-0 decision at Farifield the night before, the Tigers faced a senior-laden Yale team had been to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments on its home floor in front of a raucous capacity crowd. After squeaking out a 25-23 set one win, Mizzou was blitzed by Yale in the second set, 25-15, and the Bulldogs had all the momentum heading into the break. But as all good teams do, the Tigers rallied and took the next two sets to seal the win in convincing style. Mizzou had four players with double-digit kills and hit .336 in the match, showcasing the team’s incredible balance and the setting ability of Kreklow. The balanced offense and high hitting percentage were signs of things to come for a Tiger offense that was arguably the best in the country in 2013.
After the win at Yale, the Tigers breezed through their non-conference schedule to a perfect 15-0 record, but nationally there were still doubts about the Tigers. Were they as good as their record? How would they do in SEC play? Can they really compete with 5-foot-9 Carly Kan playing outside hitter? Mizzou answered every single one of those questions in a dominating win over South Carolina in its SEC opener. Mizzou hit .559 as a team, a school record against a league opponent, while Kan tallied 13 kills on .706 hitting, proving that she can compete against the bigger teams in conference play. Mizzou then won its next six matches, including two nationally-televised matches at Arkansas and Tennessee. The Tigers finally started gaining some respect nationally with a No. 25 ranking on Oct. 7, but still the Tigers – at 21-0 – went into a big home weekend still with ‘Something to Prove’ as Georgia and second-ranked, defending SEC Champion Florida were set to come to the Hearnes Center.
After a 3-1 win over a scrappy Georgia team, the biggest match to be played at the Hearnes Center in eight years awaited the Tigers. The second-ranked Gators came into the match as the hands-down favorite in the SEC, but Mizzou won the first two sets and after losing a lead late in the third, blitzed the Gators for a 3-1 win behind 14 kills from junior Emily Wilson, including the match-clincher in the fourth set. A then season-high 4,202 fans took in the match as Mizzou improved to 23-0 and 7-0 in league play. All season, ‘Something to Prove’ meant winning an SEC title, and a win over the Gators was a huge step towards that goal.
The Florida match was the program’s first ever win over a top-five opponent and it snapped a 13-match SEC winning streak for the defending champion Gators. Molly Kreklow earned National Player of the Week following the win. The Tigers went from No. 18 in the national polls to No. 11, still behind the Gators as national respect still was hard to come by for the undefeated Tigers – so they still had ‘Something to Prove.’
After a slight letdown at LSU the following Friday in which Mizzou dropped the first set of a match for the first time all year, it rallied and won that match, part of a six-match winning streak in which four of the six were sweeps with four of those wins coming on the road as well.
With every win, the stage kept getting bigger for the Tigers. But their determination never wavered and at 29-0 and 13-0 in SEC play, the eyes of the college volleyball world descended upon Gainesville, Fla., as the Tigers faced the No. 5 Gators in the nation’s biggest college volleyball match of the week on Nov. 15. Still at No. 7 nationally despite the unblemished record and a win over No. 5 Florida, Mizzou went in as the underdog. It was the first top-10 matchup in SEC play since 1991 and marked the first time that a top-10 SEC match would be played at Florida’s O’Connell Center. In a building where the Gators had lost just five SEC matches in the tenure of head coach Mary Wise (23 years at Florida), the challenge was evident. All the Tigers did was sweep the No. 5 Gators for their first 30-win season since 1978 while taking control of the SEC Title race. It was the first time that Florida had been swept at home in SEC play as well and meant that the Tigers were two wins away from clinching the school’s first-ever SEC Championship. Henning was sensational in the win with 17 kills on .500 hitting.
With an SEC title within their grasp, the Tigers dispatched South Carolina on the road two days after sweeping Florida and returned home with a chance to clinch the SEC Championship the following Friday against Mississippi State. The week was a frenzy – media attention was at an all-time high as the Tigers fielded questions about winning Missouri’s first-ever SEC Championship all week. Still undefeated, the Tigers were the biggest story in college volleyball. They had ascended to No. 4 in the polls, the best rank in program history, and were on the brink of accomplishing their goal. In front of a school-record 7,879 fans at the Hearnes Center, the Tigers shook off all of the distractions and defeated Mississippi State, 3-0, winning the title. In a midst of confetti, cheers and new hats and t-shirts with SEC Champions donned across them, Kreklow and Henning embraced – a goal completed. For a duo that had been through so much and poured even more into the program, the hug was a ‘thank you’ from one to the other after dedicating themselves to one goal. There were no words; just tears of joy and an embrace for the seniors.
With the nearly 8,000 fans still on hand for the trophy celebration, Kreklow and Henning were nearly speechless when it came their turn to address the crowd. Holding the trophy, head coach Wayne Kreklow was much more talkative and thanked the fans for their support and let them know that they weren’t done yet.
The win over Mississippi State was a big one, but it cost the Tigers as junior All-SEC middle blocker Whitney Little went down with a leg injury late in the third set. With an undefeated regular season record on the radar, a possible letdown after winning the SEC, no Little and a date at No. 16 Kentucky looming, it seemed to be the perfect storm for Mizzou’s first loss of the season in Lexington. But the Tigers came out and played possibly their best match of the season, sweeping the nationally-ranked Wildcats on their home floor on senior day. That moved Mizzou to 34-0 and 17-0 in SEC play as they were one match away from running the table.
As 7,437 fans packed into the Hearnes Center for the senior day festivities at the Hearnes, it was clear that the team had captured the hearts of Mid-Missouri. The Tigers, with a healthy Little, dispatched Arkansas in three sets to complete the first undefeated regular season in SEC history. Mizzou lost just six sets in 34 regular season matches all season. Once again, the nearly 7,500 fans stuck around after the match, this time to honor Kreklow and Henning, who had played their last regular season match at home.
Following the record-breaking year, the awards piled up for the Tigers. Kreklow took home SEC Player of the Year. Henning was an All-SEC First Team selection. Kan was the league’s Freshman of the Year and earned All-SEC First Team honors along with Little. Wayne Kreklow was the league’s Coach of the Year and Mizzou earned the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, hosting the first and second rounds. Kreklow and Henning went on to earn spots on the AVCA All-America First Team and both Kan and Little were honorable mention All-Americans by the AVCA. Kan was also the AVCA Southeast Regional Freshman of the Year and Wayne Kreklow was the region’s Coach of the Year. Kreklow, Henning, Kan and Little were all selected to the All-Region First Team as well. Mizzou finished the season ranked first nationally in hitting, kills and assists behind the four All-Americans.
The Tigers’ season ended at the hands of an experienced Purdue team in a hard-fought NCAA Tournament match. Mizzou finished the season 35-1 overall, the best record in program history. Kreklow and Henning finished as the winningest four-year class in program history with 97 wins and the 2013 season marked the perfect final chapter in the careers of Kreklow and Henning. With the hopes of raising a championship banner, the undefeated season exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations as 2013 is a year that will forever be remembered by Tiger fans for years to come.