COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou volleyball is set to travel to Oxford, Mississippi to face Ole Miss on Thursday at the Gillom Athletics Performance Center at 6 p.m. CT. The Tigers opened conference play with a win vs. Vanderbilt on Sunday.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 14 • Thursday, Oct. 1 • 6 p.m. CT
Mizzou (8-5, 1-0 SEC) at Ole Miss (7-5, 1-0 SEC)
LOCATION: Gillom Athletics Performance Center • Oxford, Miss.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ leads 20-12 • STREAK: L1
LAST GAME: L 3-0 at SEC Tournament (Savannah, Ga. • Nov. 22, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: olemisssports.com
THE MATCHUP
Mizzou will play in their first SEC road match of the season on Friday when they travel to Oxford, Mississippi, to face Ole Miss at the Gillom Athletics Performance Center at 6 p.m. CT.
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face the Rebels for the 33rd time in program history, as they currently hold a 20-12 series advantage, including an 8-6 record in Oxford.
MU and Ole Miss faced off twice in 2025, with the Tigers earning a 3-0 win on Oct. 17 in Columbia and the Rebels taking a 3-2 victory at the SEC Tournament on Nov. 22.
The last time these teams played in Mississippi, Mizzou came away with the 3-2 win on Nov. 22, 2024. After falling behind 2-1 in the match, MU took the final two sets to earn the victory.
LAST TIME OUT
MU opened up its conference slate with a 3-1 victory over Vanderbilt on Sunday at Hearnes Center.
With the match tied at one set apiece and trailing 17-16 in set three, the Tigers strung together a seven-point run to take a 23-17 lead and continued that momentum to win the match in four.
Freshman Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the offense with 18 kills, posting a career high.
Junior Paige Felder (Parowan, Utah) continued to be strong behind the service line, tallying three aces while posting nine kills of her own.
Senior libero Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, P.R.) held up the defense with 19 digs.
S-E-C! S-E-C!
After earning the win on Sunday, Missouri is looking to start 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2020.
MU has finished .500 or better in each of its three conference slates under Coach Sullivan, posting a combined 28-21 record in that three-year span.
Only three other SEC teams have had at least a .500 record in conference play in each of the last three seasons: Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.
The Tigers’ 15-game SEC slate includes eight matches at Hearnes Center and seven on the road before the SEC Tournament from Nov. 20-24 in Savannah, Georgia.
L.F.G.
This season, the team's motto is LFG, which stands for Love. Family. Grit.
The slogan is a big part of the team culture as they use it as their primary source of pride. It has two meanings: the classic LFG motto, which means to fire yourself up, and the other is the three core values the team focuses on.
TEAM EFFORT
The Tigers rank third in the SEC in kills (609) and total blocks (114.5), while placing fourth in service aces (77) and fifth in assists (545).
Missouri’s .271 hitting percentage through 13 contests ranks 30th in the country.
DEFENSE ON LOCK
After tabulating 19 digs in Sunday's win, Ainoah Cruz raised her digs-per-set mark to 4.71, the second-highest mark in the SEC and the 20th best in the nation. The only Southeastern Conference player with a better number is Ole Miss' Cameron Bradley (5.02).
In terms of total digs, Cruz is pacing the SEC with 231 while ranking 38th in the country.
Eva Smith leads MU in blocks per set (1.11) and total blocks (52), with her total blocks placing fourth in the SEC.
THE FRESHMAN SHOW
32.2% of Mizzou's kills this season have come from freshmen (196 of 609), with Ceylin Kuyan's 60 leading the way.
Lydia Stahley led the team in kills vs. Vanderbilt, logging a career-high 18 while posting a .464 hit percentage. She also led the Tigers in kills and aces on Sept. 19 against Bowling Green with 11 and four, respectively.
Kuyan and Stahley, along with Maizy Agnello, Eva Smith, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise the Tigers' freshman class.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Junior Nina Mandovic has claimed three double-doubles this season, her most recent being at Louisville.
Sophomore Paige Felder recorded her first double-double of the season against Arkansas State with 10 kills and 10 digs.
Sierra Dudley accomplished her first of the season with 18 assists and 14 digs against Toledo.
CRUZIN’ ALONG
Ainoah Cruz has tallied 10+ digs in every match this season, achieving a season high of 30 against FGCU.
REACHING MILESTONES
Against Arkansas State, setter Sierra Dudley recorded 36 assists to pass the milestone of 1,500 in her career and is now at 1,624.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,615.
HITTING GOALS
Kimani Johnson ranks eighth all-time in a single game with a hitting percentage of .813, achieved against JMU on Aug. 29, 2024, where she notched 13 kills.
Grace O'Reilly punched a hitting percentage of .722 against FGCU, which is the first time a Tiger has hit over .700 since 2023 (Morgan Isenberg at Auburn on Oct. 23, 2023).
NIELSEN RATINGS
During the 2025 regular season, Mizzou had four games broadcast on National TV, including two on the SEC Network, one on ESPN2 and one on ESPN.
The Tigers were 2-2 in those games, as they were 2-0 on the SEC Network (W, 3-1 vs. LSU/W, 3-0 at Mississippi State) and 0-2 on the ESPN Network channels (0-1 on ESPN2; L, 3-0 at Texas A&M, 0-1 on ESPN; L, 3-1 vs. Stanford).
Mizzou was 6-2 on ESPN+ and was 6-6 on the SEC Network+ stream.
This season, the Tigers are set to have three games on SEC Network, one on ESPN2, one on ESPNU and one on FOX.
FIVE SET STANDARDS
Last season, the Tigers went 2-4 in five-set matches but are 12-8 under head coach Dawn Sullivan.
As a head coach, Sullivan is 31-19 all-time in five-set matches.
In 2023, the Tigers went a perfect 5-0 in five-set matches.
WELCOME TO COMO, ASSISTANT COACHES!
In March, Coach Sullivan announced the hiring of Lauren Cost as an assistant coach.
The former Big 12 Player of the Year and All-American from Kansas State played her collegiate career at Sullivan's alma mater, K-State, from 2000-04.
Cost remains among the top performers in K-State volleyball history, ranking in the top 10 in career kills (1,212), career hitting percentage (.354) and career block assists (380).
In recognition of her outstanding career, she was inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
In July, Sullivan additionally hired Atanas Petrov as assistant coach.
Petrov served as head coach of the U19 Bulgarian women's national team, leading them to a World Championship and was named the best coach in Bulgaria for 2025. He was previously named the best coach of the National Sport Association of Bulgaria back in 2005.
Before joining the Tigers, Petrov was head coach of the Volley Schönenwerd Men's Volleyball Club (Switzerland). The club-level veteran has coached numerous clubs in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Over that course, he is a seven-time club champion, five-time national cup winner and two-time super cup winner.
As a player, he was an outside hitter on the junior national team in Bulgaria, and he played for a variety of top Bulgarian clubs.
NEW PASSPORT
During the 2025 season, associate head coach Wendel Camargo passed his citizenship test and became a U.S. Citizen.
Camargo is originally from Brazil and has coached across the globe, as his first coaching job was with the Dominican Republic National Team.
TRANSFERS TO TIGERS
The Black and Gold welcomes two transfers: Cruz (Evansville) and Larkin (Utah State).
ABOUT THE TIGERS
The 2026 campaign is the fourth year for head coach Dawn Sullivan. In 2024, Sullivan led the Tigers to their fifth NCAA Sweet Sixteen in program history and earned AVCA Central Region Coach of the Year.
Last season, Sullivan led Missouri to a record of 17-11, including an 8-7 record in SEC play.
During the year, the Tigers secured their highest-ranked conference victory against No. 16 Tennessee, winning 3-1.
During the 2026 campaign, the Tigers will face eight top-25 teams ranked in the 2026 AVCA Preseason Poll, including five top-10 squads.
10 Tigers return to the team after the 2025 season.
INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE
Ahead of the 2026 season, the Tigers added two international products in Cruz (Arecibo, Puerto Rico) and Kuyan (Istanbul, Turkey). They now have four players on the roster from other countries: Maca Lobaglio (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia).