COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou volleyball returns to Hearnes Center of Friday at 7 p.m. to face No. 5 Florida. The match will be televised on ESPNU.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 16 • Friday, Oct. 9 • 7 p.m.
Mizzou (8-7, 1-2 SEC) vs. Florida (12-1, 3-0 SEC)
LOCATION: Hearnes Center • Columbia, Mo.
SERIES HISTORY: FLA leads 15-5 • STREAK: L8
LAST GAME: L 3-1 at Stephen C. O'Connell Center (Gainesville, Fla. • Oct. 10, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: ESPNU
OPPONENT WEB: floridagators.com/
THE MATCHUP
Mizzou returns home to face seventh-ranked Florida at Hearnes Center on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face Florida for the 21st time in program history. MU is currently 5-15 all-time vs. the Gators and is 3-5 in Columbia.
Missouri and Florida last faced off on Oct. 10, 2025, in Gainesville, with the Tigers suffering a 3-1 loss. It extended Mizzou's losing streak vs. the Gators to eight matches dating back to Oct. 30, 2019.
The last win in this series for MU came on Oct. 21, 2018 in Florida (3-2). The Tigers have not defeated the Gators in Missouri since Nov. 20, 2016 (3-2).
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou dropped its Sunday afternoon match at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center in five sets. After being down 2-1, MU took the fourth set but couldn’t win the fifth to fall to 8-7 on the year and 1-2 in SEC play.
Fifth-year right side/outside hitter Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) led the offensive effort with 15 kills, her third time reaching double digits this season.
Senior right side Grace O’Reilly (Springfield, Mo.) tallied double-digit kills for the fifth time this season with 13 in the contest. Freshman Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) followed with 10, her third match with double-digit kills. The right side/outside hitter also reached a career-high of three total blocks.
Junior middle blocker Tia Phinezy (Fort Wayne, Ind.) recorded a career high seven kills and led the team with six total blocks.
The Black and Gold notched 65 total digs, with three contributing double-digit values. Junior setter Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) reached a season high of 15, with senior libero Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, P.R.) and senior setter Sierra Dudley (Spartanburg, S.C.) pitching in 14 each.
S-E-C! S-E-C!
Missouri won its conference opener, but dropped its last two matches to fall to 1-2 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 Friday's opponent: 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 RANKINGS
The Tigers rank top-five in the SEC in kills (4th, 716), digs (5th, 721), service aces (5th, 86) and team total blocks (5th, 129.5).
Their total blocks rank 97th nationally, while their blocks per set mark (2.23) is 101st.
Their .265 hitting percentage is their best national mark, sitting 29th in the country.
All of these numbers have come against a schedule that ranks as the 19th-most difficult in the country and 5th-hardest in the SEC.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (264), as she sits nine digs ahead of Ole Miss's Cameron Bradley (255).
On a rate basis, Cruz and Bradley also rank first and second in the SEC, with Bradley posting a 5.00 mark and Cruz sitting at a 4.55.
Cruz's 4.55 digs per set would place her 7th all-time in a season in school history.
She has tallied 10+ digs in every match this season, achieving a season high of 30 against FGCU.
DIGGER
In addition to Cruz, MU is getting major defensive contributions from Nina Mandovic (77 digs, 7 blocks), Page Felder (72 digs, 23 blocks), Sierra Dudley (68 digs, 4 blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (55 digs).
In the team's match at LSU, Mandovic set a career high in total 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 63. She also leads the team in blocks (60) and blocks per set (1.07).
Lydia Stahley has 52 kills on the year and led the team in kills in its 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.
Ceylin Kuyan (Instanbul, Turkey) has 60 kills of her own posting a 2.31 kills per set figure, third-best on the Tigers.
In total, 226 of MU's 716 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (31.6 percent)
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, 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.
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).