COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou volleyball will face Auburn on Sunday at Hearnes Center at 2 p.m. CDT. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 17 • Sunday, Oct. 11 • 2 p.m.
Mizzou (8-8, 1-3 SEC) vs. Auburn (11-5, 1-3 SEC)
LOCATION: Hearnes Center • Columbia, Mo.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ leads 18-3 • STREAK: W5
LAST GAME: W 3-1 at Neville Arena (Auburn, Ala. • Oct. 12, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: auburntigers.com/
THE MATCHUP
Mizzou faces Auburn on Sunday at Hearnes Center at 2 p.m. CDT. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
SERIES HISTORY
MU is set to face Auburn for the 22nd time in program history. Missouri is currently 18-3 all-time vs. Auburn and is 8-1 in Columbia.
Mizzou and Auburn last faced off on Oct. 12, 2025 on the Plains, with Mizzou earning the 3-1 win. It extended Mizzou's winning streak vs. Auburn to five matches, dating back to Oct. 16, 2022.
The Black & Gold have won 17 of their 19 games vs. Auburn since joining the SEC in 2012.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou dropped its Friday night match vs. No. 5 Florida in three sets. After dropping the first set 25-13, MU had a 24-23 lead the second but couldn't close out for the win and eventually fell in three.
Posting eight kills, fifth-year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) punched her seventh game this season with at least seven in the statistic.
Senior Grace O'Reilly (Springfield, Mo.) posted her tenth game this season with seven or more kills.
Senior Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, Puerto Rico) met the Gators' offense with 12 receptions and only one error.
S-E-C! S-E-C!
Missouri won its conference opener, but dropped its last three matches to fall to 1-3 in conference play.
MU has finished .500 or better in each of its three conference slates under head coach Dawn 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.
Mizzou’s 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 RANKINGS
Mizzou ranks top-five in the SEC in kills (fourth, 750), digs (fifth, 721) and service aces (fourth, 89).
Entering Friday, Missouri's total blocks ranked 97th nationally, while its blocks per set mark (2.23) was 101st.
The Tigers' .265 hitting percentage is their best national mark, sitting 29th in the country.
This has come on the back of a schedule that ranked as the 19th-most difficult in the country and fifth-hardest in the SEC.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (273), as she sits six digs ahead of Ole Miss's Cameron Bradley (266).
On a rate basis, Cruz and Bradley also rank first and second in the SEC, with Bradley posting a 4.93 mark and Cruz sitting at a 4.48.
Cruz's 4.48 digs per set would place her 8th all-time in a season in school history.
She has tallied 10+ digs in 15 of Mizzou's 16 contests, achieving a season high of 30 against FGCU.
DIGGER
In addition to Cruz, MU is getting major defensive contributions from Nina Mandovic (82 digs, seven blocks), Page Felder (74 digs, 23 blocks), Sierra Dudley (74 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (58 digs).
In the team's match at LSU, Mandovic set a career high in single-match digs with 15.
THE FRESHMAN SHOW
Three different freshmen have already logged at least 50 kills this season, with Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) leading the way with 65. She also leads the team in blocks (60) and blocks per set (1.02).
Lydia Stahley has 55 kills on the year and led the team in its win vs. Vanderbilt, logging a career-high 18 while posting a .464 hit percentage. She also led Mizzou in kills and aces on Sept. 19 against Bowling Green with 11 and four, respectively.
Ceylin Kuyan (Instanbul, Turkey) has 60 kills of her own posting a 2.31 kills per set figure, third-best on Missouri.
In total, 232 of MU's 745 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (31.1 percent)
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise MU's 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.
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.
O'Reilly punched a hitting percentage of .722 against FGCU, which is the first time a Tiger has hit over .700 since 2023, when Morgan Isenberg did so at Auburn on Oct. 23, 2023.
NIELSEN RATINGS
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 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 in 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).