COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou volleyball continues its road trip with a matinee match against the LSU Tigers on Sunday at noon at Pete Maravich Center. The match will be televised on SEC Network.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 15 • Sunday, Oct. 4 • 12 p.m.
Mizzou (8-6, 1-1 SEC) at LSU (6-6, 1-2 SEC)
LOCATION: Pete Maravich Center • Baton Rouge, La.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ leads 15-7 • STREAK: W2
LAST GAME: W 3-1 at Hearnes Center (Columbia, Mo. • Oct. 19, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network
OPPONENT WEB: lsusports.net
THE MATCHUP
Mizzou continues its road swing with a match at LSU on Sunday at the Maravich Center at 12 p.m. CDT.
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face LSU for the 23rd time in program history. MU currently holds a 15-7 series advantage, including a 7-3 record in Baton Rouge.
Missouri and LSU faced off on Oct. 19, 2025 in Columbia, with Mizzou earning a 3-1 win. In that match, the teams split the first two sets before MU came back from down 24-16 in set three to win 27-25 and completed the victory with a 25-19 score in the fourth.
The last time these teams played in Louisiana, Mizzou came away with the 3-0 win on Sept. 27, 2024 to open its SEC schedule.
LAST TIME OUT
MU dropped its first road match of SEC play, falling 3-1 at Ole Miss and slipping to 1-1 through two conference games.
Against the Rebels, Mizzou lost the first set by five points, the second by three points and the fourth by five again. Across the four sets, the Tigers were only outscored by eight points total.
Sophomore Paige Felder (Parowan, Utah) led the offense with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .321, her fifth time hitting over the .300 margin this season.
Senior Grace O’Reilly (Springfield, Mo.) recorded 11 kills and a block for the Tigers, her fourth time of the season tallying double-digit kills.
Fifth year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) and freshman Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) punched in seven kills each.
S-E-C! S-E-C!
Missouri won its conference opener, but dropped its second match to fall to 1-1. The Tigers are looking to win two of their first three matches in SEC action for the first time since 2020.
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.
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 it is used as the primary source of pride. It has two meanings: the classic LFG motto, which means to fire yourself up, and the three core values the team focuses on.
GRACE-FUL
O'Reilly's 11 kills against the Rebels on Sunday brought her season total to an even 100, the second most on the team. Her hitting percentage sits at .302.
Of her 189 career kills, 52.9 percent have come in 2026. O'Reilly put up 89 kills across her first 65 career sets and has beaten that mark in just 43 sets this year.
DIGGER
After tabulating 19 digs in Friday's match, Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, Puerto Rico) moved her digs-per-set mark to 4.68, the second-highest mark in the SEC.
In terms of total digs, Cruz has logged 250.
THE FRESHMAN SHOW
31.3% of Mizzou's kills this season have come from freshmen (205 of 654), with Ceylin Kuyan's (Istanbul, Turkey) 60 leading the way.
Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the team in kills in last Sunday's win 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.
On the defensive side, Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) leads MU in blocks per set (1.12) and total blocks (57).
Kuyan, Stahley and Smith, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise the Tigers' freshman class.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Junior Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) has claimed three double-doubles this season, her most recent being at Louisville.
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
Cruz has tallied 10+ digs in every match this season, achieving a season high of 30 against FGCU.
REACHING MILESTONES
Against Arkansas State, setter Dudley recorded 36 assists to pass the milestone of 1,500 in her career and is now at 1,624.
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
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 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).