COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou faces No. 16 Texas A&M on Sunday at Hearnes Center at 2 p.m. CST. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
MATCH AT A GLANCE
Game No. 25 • Sunday, Nov. 8 • 2 p.m. CST
Mizzou (14-10, 7-5 SEC) at #16 Texas A&M (14-10, 7-5 SEC)
LOCATION: Hearnes Center • Columbia, Mo.
SERIES HISTORY: MIZ trails 21-35 • STREAK: L1
LAST GAME: L 3-1 at Reed Arena (College Station, Texas • Sept. 24, 2025)
LIVE STREAM: SEC Network+
OPPONENT WEB: https://12thman.com/
SERIES HISTORY
The Tigers are set to face the Aggies for the 57th time in program history. Missouri is currently 21-35 all-time against A&M but is 16-11 in Columbia.
Mizzou and Texas A&M last faced off on Sept. 24, 2025, in College Station, with MU suffering a 3-1 loss. The last game in the series in Columbia came on Nov. 10, 2023, with the Black & Gold winning 3-1.
Despite the overall series record favoring Texas A&M, recently it has been more favorable to MU, as the Tigers has won eight of the last 13 matches dating back to 2017.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou fell to No. 13 Texas in a sweep on Friday night at Hearnes Center.
Sophomore Paige Felder (Parowan, Utah) led the Tigers with 12 kills, along with posting three digs on defense.
Senior Ainoah Cruz (Arecibo, P.R.) was the face of the Tigers’ defense, putting up 18 digs and 6.0 digs per set, and notching an assist.
Sophomore Nina Mandovic (Subotica, Serbia) notched her seventh double-double of the season, accruing 12 assists and 10 digs.
CONFERENCE CALL
MU is 7-5 in conference play with three games to go. It needs to win just one of its last three contests 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 35-26 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.
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.
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.
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.
EN FUEGO
Since Oct. 11, the Tigers have gone 6-2, including a five-match win streak and notched the team's highest-ranked win since 2016 (vs. No. 5 Florida) when they defeated No. 6 Tennessee on Nov. 1.
In that span, they rank fifth in the SEC in hitting percentage (.254), third in opponent hitting percentage (.203) and fourth in blocks per set (2.47).
They rank second in the conference in blocks allowed in that span, surrendering just 16.2 per set.
The only two teams in the SEC with a better record in that span are Florida (7-1) and Vanderbilt (6-1), who rank first and second in the league, respectively.
CRUZ CONTROL
No one in the conference has more total digs than Ainoah Cruz (409).
Cruz ranks second in in the SEC in digs per set, sitting at a 4.54 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 last Sunday vs. No. 6 Tennessee (5.80) and Friday 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.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Three freshmen have already logged at least 60 kills this season, with Lydia Stahley (Indianapolis, Ind.) leading the way (100). 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 ranks second in kills (97) and leads the entire team in blocks (92), a total that places her fifth in the SEC.
Ceylin Kuyan (Instanbul, Turkey) has 70 kills of her own, posting 2.12 per set, fourth-best on the team.
In total, 327 of MU's 1,092 kills this season have come from its freshman talent (28.9 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 seventh double-double of the season vs. Texas, with 14 assists and 10 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 (157 digs, nine blocks), Page Felder (106 digs, 37 blocks), Sierra Dudley (114 digs, four blocks) and Zoey Matias-Lopez (124 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 1,820.
Ainoah Cruz also reached a milestone of 1,500 career digs while facing FGCU and is now at 1,793.
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.
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.
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.