COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou volleybal faces No. 7 Kentucky on Friday at Memorial Coliseum at 6 p.m. CDT. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 22 • Friday, Oct. 30 • 6 p.m. CDT
Mizzou (13-8, 6-3 SEC) at #7 Kentucky (15-5, 7-3 SEC)
LOCATION: Memorial Coliseum • Lexington, Ky.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ trails 5-19 • STREAK: L15
LAST GAME: L 3-1 at Hearnes Center (Columbia, Mo. • Nov. 6, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: ukathletics.com/
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face Kentucky for the 25th time in program history. Missouri is currently 5-19 all-time vs. the Wildcats and is 3-5 on the road.
Mizzou and UK last faced off on Nov. 6, 2025, at Hearnes Center, with MU losing 3-1. The last game in the series in Lexington came on Oct. 6, 2024, with the Black and Gold losing 3-0.
Missouri is seeking its first win against the Wildcats since Nov. 6, 2016.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou volleyball won its fifth-consecutive match on Sunday in Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum.
Fifth year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) and sophomore Paige Felder (Parowan, Utah) contributed 13 kills each for the Black and Gold, combining to account for 50.9 percent of the team’s total kills. The duo notched three total blocks each, with Johnson posting her third solo block of the season.
Junior Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 27 assists and 13 digs. The setter also ended the match with two aces.
ON A HEATER
Missouri's win over Georgia was its fifth consecutive victory, dating back to Oct. 11 vs. Auburn.
The Tigers are one of three teams in the SEC with a five-match conference winning streak this season, joining Tennessee (seven matches) and Vanderbilt (six matches).
Mizzou is the only SEC program to have a five-match winning streak in conference play in each of the last three seasons. In addition to this year, they had a seven-match run in 2025 and an eight-match stretch in 2024.
The Tigers have won 14 of their last 15 sets dating back to their match vs. Auburn. In that contest they were down 2-1, but rallied for the win before earning three consecutive sweeps and taking three of their four vs. UGA.
FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Middle blocker Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Monday after a weekend where she notched 16 blocks, including a career-high nine on Friday at South Carolina, and 11 kills with a .321 hitting percentage.
The freshman also recorded a career high 10 kills at South Carolina and notched seven more blocks at Georgia, including a solo block in the decisive fourth set of the Georgia match to help lead the Tigers to a win. Smith averaged 2.29 blocks per set over the weekend, the best in the conference.
CONFERENCE CALL
Missouri earned its fifth consecutive conference win on Sunday, improving to 6-3 through eight games.
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 34-24 record overall.
Only three other SEC teams have had at least a .500 record in conference play in each of the last three seasons: Tennessee, Florida and Friday's opponent: Kentucky.
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
Entering this past weekend, no one in the conference had more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (348).
Cruz ranks third in in the SEC in digs per set, sitting at a 4.41 mark, a number that 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 four 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 (131 digs, nine blocks), Page Felder (94 digs, 33 blocks), Sierra Dudley (104 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (93 digs).
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 .339 mark, totaling 88 kills on 192 attacks.
THE FRESHMAN SHOW
Three freshmen have already logged at least 60 kills this season, with Eva Smith leading the way (88). She also leads the team in blocks (83).
Lydia Stahley has 81 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 64 kills of her own, posting 2.29 per set, third-best on the team.
In total, 293 of MU's 992 kills this season have come from its freshmen talent (29.5 percent).
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise MU's freshmen class.
TEAM RANKINGS
MU ranks third in the conference in kills (992) and fourth in assists (900).
They also place sixth in service aces (107), digs (998) and hitting percentage (.263).
Nationally, Mizzou's hitting percentage ranks 29th.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Nina Madovic recorded her fifth double-double of the season at Georgia, with 27 assists and 13 digs.
She is one of three Tigers with a double-double this season, joining Sierra Dudley and Paige Felder.
For Mandovic, it was her first double-double since Oct. 11 vs. Auburn.
Dudley's has two: Sept. 18 at Toledo and Oct. 11 vs. Auburn.
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 1,764.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,732.
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).