COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou faces No. 13 Texas on Friday at Hearnes Center at 7 p.m. CST. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 24 • Friday, Nov. 6 • 7 p.m. CsT
Mizzou (14-9, 7-4 SEC) at #13 Texas (12-7, 8-3 SEC)
LOCATION: Hearnes Center • Columbia, Mo.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ trails 11-23 • STREAK: L1
LAST GAME: L 3-0 at Gregory Gymnasium (Austin, Texas • Sept. 26, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: texaslonghorns.com/
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face the Longhorns for the 35th time in program history. Missouri is currently 11-23 all-time against UT and is 7-9 in Columbia.
Mizzou and Texas last faced off on Sept. 26, 2025, in Austin, with MU suffering a sweep. The last game in the series in Columbia came on Nov. 19, 2011, with the Black and Gold losing 3-1.
Friday's match is the first in Missouri since Texas joined the Southeastern Conference in 2024. They've played a match in each of the last two seasons, both in Austin, with both squads notching a win.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou volleyball earned a five-set victory over No. 6 Tennessee, its highest-ranked win since it beat No. 5 Florida on Nov. 20, 2016.
The Lady Vols had the contest at match point, up 25-24 in the fourth set leading 2-1, but MU stormed back to earn the 27-25 win in the fourth and closed it out with a 15-9 win in the fifth.
Fifth year Kimani Johnson (Southfield, Mich.) and senior Grace O’Reilly (Springfield, Mo.) headlined the offense with 16 kills each. It marked the sixth double-digit kill game for both of them.
Junior Lauren Larkin (St. George, Utah) served three aces, her highest total this season. The middle also notched eight kills.
Junior Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) recorded a double-double with 25 assists and 11 digs, her sixth of the season.
Senior libero Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, Puerto Rico) held up the defense with 29 digs and a 5.8 digs/set mark.
ON A HEATER
Following Sunday's win, the Tigers have won six of their last seven matches, including three consecutive sweeps in that span.
Two of those six wins have been five-set victories, with both requiring a comeback from being down 2-1 (vs. Auburn on Oct. 11, vs. Tennessee on Nov. 1).
MU 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.
Missouri is one of four SEC teams with a 7-4 record in conference play, but it has defeated two of the three other teams with that record: Mississippi State and Tennessee.
The Tigers have jumped up 18 spots in the RPI across the last five weeks, moving from 48th to 30th.
GETTIN' RECOGNIZED
Ainoah Cruz was named Southeastern Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after a weekend where she posted a 5.38 digs per set mark, the best in the SEC, and led the league with 43 total digs against the sixth- and seventh-ranked squads in the nation.
Cruz notched 5.8 digs per set in MU's five-set win over No. 6 Tennesse and totaled 29 digs in the match, one short of her season high.
It marks the second consecutive week a Tiger has taken home a conference award following Eva Smith (Durham, N.C.) being named Freshman of the Week seven days prior after leading the conference in blocks (16) for the week and notching 11 kills in a three-set victory over South Carolina.
CONFERENCE CALL
MU is 7-4 in conference play with four games to go. It needs to win just one of its last four games to finish .500 or better in SEC play for the fourth consectuive year.
Missouri 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 35-25 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 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.
TEAM RANKINGS
MU ranks second in the conference in kills (1,092), third in assists (992) and fifth in total blocks (197.0).
They also place sixth in service aces (113) and fifth in digs (1,108) and hitting percentage (.261).
Nationally, Mizzou's hitting percentage ranks 28th while its blocks per set (2.26) ranks 90th.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (391).
Cruz ranks second in in the SEC in digs per set, sitting at a 4.49 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 seven times this season, including last Sunday vs. No. 6 Tennessee (5.80).
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.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Three freshmen have already logged at least 60 kills this season, with Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) leading the way (99). 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) last Friday.
Eva Smith ranks second in kills (95) and leads the entire team in blocks (91), a total that places her fifth in the SEC.
Ceylin Kuyan (Instanbul, Turkey) has 68 kills of her own, posting 2.19 per set, fourth-best on the team.
In total, 322 of MU's 1,092 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (29.5 percent).
Smith, Stahley and Kuyan, along with Maizy Agnello, Millie Bauer and Piper Batie comprise MU's freshmen class.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Nina Madovic recorded her sixth double-double of the season vs. Tennessee, with 25 assists and 11 digs across the five-set effort.
She has recorded a double-double in two of her last three matches after also doing so on Oct. 25 at Georgia.
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.
DIGGER
In addition to Cruz, MU is getting major defensive contributions from Nina Mandovic (147 digs, nine blocks), Page Felder (103 digs, 36 blocks), Sierra Dudley (109 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (118 digs).
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 1,803.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,775.
FIVE SET STANDARDS
MU's win vs. Tennessee was its second victory in a five-set match this season, improving to 2-3.
Last season, the Tigers went 2-4 in five-set matches, but they are 14-8 overall under Coach Sullivan.
As a head coach, Sullivan is 32-19 all-time in five-set matches.
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).
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.
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.