Wilson had 13 kills in the loss.
OXFORD, Miss. - Mizzou volleyball had its 20-match SEC winning streak snapped on Wednesday night (Oct. 1) at Ole Miss as the Tigers fell to Ole Miss, 3-0 (18-25, 23-25, 22-25). The loss drops the Tigers to 11-6 on the season and 2-1 in SEC play. Senior Emily Wilson (Omaha, Neb.) led Mizzou with 13 kills in the loss. Mizzou led by at least three points in every set but lost leads late in sets two and three, allowing Ole Miss to improve to 15-2 and 1-2 in SEC play.
"I thought we let the match slip away late in the second set," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "When you are on the road, you can't let leads like that slip away. Right now, we need to focus on not letting one mistake become three or four and that's what happened in the second set. It's a quick turnaround as we head to Georgia on Sunday so we need to be focused and ready to go the next couple days at practice."
Both teams were razor-sharp defensively to open the first set as long rallies seemed to be the trend early. Mizzou opened an 8-5 lead after a 3-0 run, but Ole Miss scored seven of the next 10 points to open a 12-11 lead as Wayne Kreklow called for a stoppage. Ole Miss kept the Tigers out of system through the rest of the frame as the Rebels won set one, 25-18. Mizzou hit .267 in the first but Ole Miss was better at .324 with 15 kills, five from Nakeyta Clair. Ole Miss also had four aces in the first - three from Melanie Crow. Emily Thater (Springfield, Mo.) led Mizzou with four kills in the first set while Regan Peltier (Nixa, Mo.) added three on just three swings.
Mizzou was in system for much of the second set and opened a 22-16 lead on a solo block from Kan, which forced an Ole Miss timeout. The timeout woke up the Rebels who closed the gap and eventually won the set, 25-23. Ole Miss scored nine of the final 10 points in the set and took a 2-0 lead into intermission. Wilson led Mizzou with seven kills through two frames. Mizzou was hitting .390 in the second when up 22-16 but finished the set with just a 0.79 clip.
Just as they did in the first two sets, the Tigers opened an early lead at 8-4 behind the arm of Wilson. The Tigers led late in set three again at 18-15, but Ole Miss again rallied to tie the set at 20-20. And just as they did in set two, Ole Miss rallied late to win the frame, 25-22.
Mizzou will be back in action, again on the SEC Network, on Sunday at Georgia. For all the latest on Mizzou volleyball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouVB.