COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou faces Arkansas on Sunday at Barnhill Arena at 2 p.m. CST for its regular season finale. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 27 • Sunday, Nov. 15 • 3 p.m. CST
RV Mizzou (16-10, 9-5 SEC) at Arkansas (13-12, 5-9 SEC)
LOCATION: Barnhill Arena • Fayetteville, Ark.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ leads 17-6 • STREAK: W2
LAST GAME: W 3-0 at Hearnes Center (Columbia, Mo. • Oct. 3, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: arkansasrazorbacks.com/
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face the Razorbacks for the 24th time in program history. Missouri is currently 17-6 all-time against Arkansas and is 6-5 in Fayetteville.
Mizzou and Arkansas last faced off on October 3, 2025, in Columbia, with MU notching a sweep. The last game in the series in Fayetteville came on October 25, 2024, with the Black & Gold winning 3-1.
MU has swept the Razorbacks 10 times in the series while it has only been swept by them three times in that span.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou volleyball earned a five-set road victory against the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday night at McCasland Field House, securing a first-round bye in next week’s Southeastern Conference tournament.
Fifth-year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) led Missouri in kills, notching 12 on a .323 hitting percentage. She also added on three blocks.
Freshman Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) led the team in blocks with eight and notched four kills of her own.
Sophomore Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) tallied a career-high-tying four service aces, including a crucial pair in the match-deciding fifth set.
CONFERENCE CALL
MU is 9-5 in conference play with one games to go. Last sunday's victory vs. Texas A&M secured a winning conference record for the Black & Gold, marking the fourth consecutive season they have been .500 or better in SEC play.
Only three other SEC teams have had at least a .500 record in conference play in each of the last four seasons, including 2026: Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky.
Head Coach Dawn Sullivan is 37-26 in SEC play since joining the Tigers prior to the 2023 season.
After stringing together five wins from Oct. 11-25, MU became 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.
Following Friday's win, Mizzou locked down a first-round bye in the SEC tournament. They can finish no higher than fifth place and no lower than sixth place in the standings.
Currently sitting in sixth, a combination of an MU win vs. Arkansas and a Tennessee loss to South Carolina would move the Tigers up to the five-seed line.
In their current seed, they would face the winner of the 11-seed vs. 14-seed contest during the final match of the day on Saturday, November 21.
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.
EN FUEGO
Since Oct. 11, the Tigers have gone 8-2, including a five-match win streak.
They are tied for third in opponent hitting percentage (.214) and rank second in blocks per set (2.55) over that stretch.
MU is tied with Kentucky, allowing just 1.58 blocks for set in that stretch.
Since that date, they have notched the team's highest-ranked win since 2016 (vs. No. 5 Florida) when they defeated No. 6 Tennessee on November 1.
They also swept No. 17 Texas A&M on November 8, their final home match of the regular season.
The only two teams in the SEC with a better record during that stretch are Florida (8-1) and Vanderbilt (7-1), who rank first and second in the league, respectively.
Across the last six weeks, the Tigers have jumped 18 spots in the RPI, improving from 48th to 30th.
POLL POSITION
For the first time this season, Mizzou is receiving votes in the AVCA coaches' poll. They are the fourth team out of the top 25.
The last time the Tigers appeared in the top 25 was Oct. 6, 2025 when they were ranked 25th.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (437).
Cruz ranks second in in the SEC in digs per set, sitting at a 4.46 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 eight times this season, including vs. No. 6 Tennessee (5.8) and vs. No. 13 Texas (6.0).
Her season high in digs per set came on Sept. 9 vs. No. 5 Louisville, when she notched a 6.75 mark. Her best mark for digs in total was 30 at Dayton on Sept. 18.
DIGGER
In addition to Cruz, MU is getting major defensive contributions from Nina Mandovic (167 digs, 10 blocks), Page Felder (113 digs, 40 blocks), Sierra Dudley (120 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (139 digs).
YOUTH MOVEMENT
In total, 349 of MU's 1,216 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (28.7%).
Mizzou's 349 kills from freshmen are 142 more than the second-place in the conference Ole Miss (207) and its 28.7% mark is 8.3% more than the second-ranked Rebels (20.4%).
Three freshmen have already logged at least 60 kills this season, with Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) leading the way (111). She led the team in its win vs. Vanderbilt on Sept. 27, logging a career-high 18 while posting a .464 hit percentage. She also led against No. 7 Kentucky (7).
Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) ranks second in kills (105) and leads the entire team in blocks (106), a total that places her third in the SEC.
Ceylin Kuyan (Instanbul, Turkey) has 73 kills of her own, posting 2.09 per set, fourth-best on the team.
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise MU's freshmen class.
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 1,848.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,821.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Nina Madovic recorded her seventh double-double of the season vs. No. 13 Texas, with 14 assists and 10 digs.
She is one of three Tigers with a double-double this season, joining Sierra Dudley and Paige Felder.
Dudley has two: Sept. 18 at Toledo and Oct. 11 vs. Auburn.
Paige Felder had one against Arkansas State with 10 kills and 10 digs.
FIVE SET STANDARDS
MU's win vs. Oklahoma was its third victory in a five-set match this season, improving to 3-3.
In each of Missouri's three five-set wins, it dropped the first set and came back from down 1-0.
Last season, the Tigers went 2-4 in five-set matches, but they are 15-8 overall under Coach Sullivan.
As a head coach, Sullivan is 33-19 all-time in five-set matches.
GETTIN' RECOGNIZED
Two Tigers have earned Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors this season.
Ainoah Cruz was named Co-Defensive Player of the Week for the week of October 26 through November 1 when she posted a 5.38 digs per set mark, the best in the SEC, and led the league with 43 total digs against No. 6 Tennessee and No. 7 Kentucky.
Eva Smith was named Freshman of the Week for the week of October 19 through 25 when she led the conference in blocks (16) and notched 11 kills in a three-set victory over South Carolina.
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 have or will face eight top-25 teams ranked in the 2026 AVCA Preseason Poll.
10 Tigers return to the team after the 2025 season.
TRANSFERS TO TIGERS
The Black and Gold welcomed two transfers in the offseason in Cruz (Evansville) and Larkin (Utah State).
EYES ON THE TIGERS
The Tigers have been on four linear TV networks this season: ESPN (vs. Tennessee), ESPNU (vs. Florida), FOX (vs. Nebraska at Wrigley Field) and SEC Network (three 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.
Alongside Camargo, six different nations are represented on the Tigers this season: Serbia (Nina Mandovic), Turkey (Ceylin Kuyan), Argentina (Maca Lobaglio), Bulgaria (Atanas Petrov), Brazil (Camargo) and America.