COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou volleyball faces South Carolina on Friday at Carolina Volleyball Center at 6 p.m. CDT. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 20 • Friday, Oct. 23 • 6 p.m. CDT
Mizzou (11-8, 4-3 SEC) at South Carolina (9-9, 2-6 SEC)
LOCATION: Carolina Volleyball Center • Columbia, S.C.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ leads 12-8 • STREAK: W3
LAST GAME: W 3-1 at Hearnes Center (Columbia, Mo. • Oct. 24, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: gamecocksonline.com
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face South Carolina for the 21st time in program history. Missouri is currently 12-8 all-time vs. the Gamecocks, but is 3-6 on the road.
Mizzou and South Carolina last faced off on Oct. 24, 2025, at Hearnes Center, with MU earning a 3-1 victory. The last game in the series in South Carolina came on Oct. 2, 2022, with the Black and Gold losing 3-0.
Nine of Missouri's 12 wins in this series have been sweeps. In comparison, it's only been swept twice by the the Gamecocks.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou volleyball swept its second-consecutive match and earned its third-straight win, defeating Alabama on Sunday afternoon at Hearnes Center.
Sophomore Paige Felder (Parowan, Utah) led the offense with 15 kills and had a .448 hit percentage.
Junior Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) led the Tigers in digs with nine and chipped in three service aces.
Fifth-year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) ended the match with eight kills.
ON A HEATER
Missouri's sweep of Alabama was its second consecutive 3-0 win after also sweeping Mississippi State last Wednesday.
Those matches mark the first time MU has swept back-to-back SEC foes since March 24-25, 2021, both vs. Mississippi State.
The Tigers have won eight consecutive sets dating back to their match vs. Auburn. In that contest they were down 2-1, but rallied for the win before taking all three sets in their last two matches.
Mizzou has been in the driver's seat in all eight of those sets as there have only been four total lead changes.
CONFERENCE CALL
Missouri earned its third consecutive conference win on Sunday, improving to 4-3 through seven games. Friday's match pushes the Tigers past the halfway point of their SEC slate.
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 and a 32-24 record overall.
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.
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.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (322).
Cruz ranks second in digs per set, with Ole Miss's Cameron Bradley leading with 4.93 and Cruz sitting at a 4.47 mark.
Cruz's 4.47 digs per set would tie her for eighth all-time in a season in school history.
She has surpassed the 5.00 digs/set mark six times this season, including two of the last three matches (10/11 vs. Auburn, 10/14 vs. Mississippi State).
Her season high came on Sept. 9 vs. No. 5 Louisville, when she tallied 27 digs in just four sets, good for a 6.75 mark.
DIGGER
In addition to Cruz, MU is getting major defensive contributions from Nina Mandovic (109 digs, seven blocks), Page Felder (85 digs, 29 blocks), Sierra Dudley (90 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (78 digs).
THE FRESHMAN SHOW
Three freshmen have already logged at least 60 kills this season, with Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) leading the way with 77. She also leads the team in blocks (67).
Lydia Stahley has 75 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 2.31 per set, third-best on the team.
In total, 269 of MU's 896 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (30.0 percent).
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise MU's freshmen class.
TEAM RANKINGS
As a team, MU ranks third in the conference in total kills (896) and total assists (810).
They also place in the top five in service aces (fifth, 100) total attacks (fourth, 2,282) and sixth in total digs (903) and hitting percentage (.263).
Nationally, Mizzou's hitting percentage ranks 28th.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Nina Madovic and Sierra Dudley both notched double-doubles in Mizzou's win vs. Auburn, with Mandovic logging 23 assists and 11 digs and Dudley tallying 28 assists and 10 digs.
For Mandovic, it was her fourth double-double this season and first since Sept. 9 vs. Louisville.
Dudley's was her first since Sept. 18 vs. Toledo.
Sophomore Paige Felder has a double-double of her own against Arkansas State with 10 kills and 10 digs.
REACHING MILSTONES
Against Arkansas State, setter Sierra Dudley recorded 36 assists to pass the milestone of 1,500 in her career and is now at 1,735.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,706.
HITTING GOALS
The Tigers have four players with a hitting percentage of .250 or better on 50 or more total attacks.
The leader in the clubhouse is Lauren Larkin (St. George, Utah), who sits at a .368 mark, totaling 77 kills on 163 attacks.
FIVE SET STANDARDS
MU's win vs. Auburn on Oct. 11 was its first victory in a five-set match this season, improving to 1-3.
Last season, the Tigers went 2-4 in five-set matches, but are 13-8 overall under head coach Dawn Sullivan.
As a head coach, Sullivan 32-19 all-time in five-set matches.
In 2023, the Tigers went a perfect 5-0 in five-set matches.
SUPPORT STAFF
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.
Six different nations are represented on the Tigers this season: Serbia, Turkey, Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil and America.
TRANSFERS TO TIGERS
The Black and Gold welcomed two transfers in the offseason in Cruz (Evansville) and Larkin (Utah State).
EYE ON THE TIGER
This season, the Tigers are set to have three games on SEC Network, one on ESPN2, one on ESPNU and one on FOX.
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).