COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri volleyball team (6-3) earned a 3-1 (25-17, 25-16, 22-25, 25-13) victory over Lindenwood (4-5) to close out the Mizzou Invitational with a perfect 3-0 record on Sunday afternoon inside Hearnes Center in front of the second-straight crowd of over 3,000 fans.
Redshirt sophomore setter Marina Crownover led the Tigers offense with her first career double-double outing. Crownover broke career-bests she set just a match ago in both assists with 37 and digs with 11. The Austin, Texas, native, piled on three aces, which matched a career-high, to go with one block and one kill.
Graduate student Mychael Vernon and senior Jordan Iliff continued their strong start to the season as both registered their eighth match with 10-plus kills. Iliff paced the Tigers with 13 kills along with four digs, two aces and a block while Vernon was right behind with 12 kills, four digs, two aces, two blocks and an assist.
Graduate student Colleen Finney also finished in double-figure kills with 11, her season-best mark. Finney added three blocks and a dig while connecting at a .667 clip.
Junior Maya Sands led Mizzou defensively with 20 digs, marking her third match this season collecting over 20 digs and 17th match achieving 20-plus as a Tiger. The Rock Falls, Illinois, product, added two aces and an assist.
FIRST SET (25-17 Mizzou, Mizzou leads 1-0)
Lindenwood controlled the first set early with a 5-1 edge thanks to three Mizzou errors before the Tigers scored four-straight points to tie things at five.
The Lions would then score five of the next six points to match their largest lead of the set, 10-6.
The Tigers then went on a run of their own to knot the first set at 11 apiece. Kills from Iliff, Finney and Vernon helped MU draw even.
After exchanging points, Mizzou took momentum into the media timeout with three straight points to claim a 15-13 advantage and carried that momentum out of the break by scoring four straight, making it a 7-0 run for the Tigers.
Iliff led the charge, connecting on four kills while Vernon and Crownover each added one to put MU ahead 19-13.
The sides continued to go back and forth until a Finney kill following an Iliff ace brought on set point, forcing the Lions to call a timeout.
Lindenwood held MU off once before Vernon secured the first set with her fourth kill of the frame.
Iliff led Missouri with six kills, while Vernon’s four came at a perfect 4-for-4 clip.
SECOND SET (25-16 Mizzou, Mizzou leads 2-0)
Mizzou went on an early run to open the second set, gaining seven points in a row to open their lead to 9-3 thanks to a series of kills from Morgan Isenberg, Finney and junior Janet deMarrais. Sands also posted an ace during the sequence.
The Tigers maintained their lead from that point on in the frame.
The teams would exchange points, with Lindenwood tallying a series of kills to close the gap, 11-9, before Mizzou would score seven of the next nine points.
With three kills from Iliff, a pair of rally stoppers from Finney and Vernon and a block by Iliff and Isenberg, the Tigers extended the lead to 18-11.
Lindenwood would cut the edge to 20-15 on a kill from Anna Kraemer before Mizzou secured the set on a 5-1 run.
deMarrais brought Mizzou to their 24th point (24-15) from the service line, as a service error from Lindenwood would secure the victory for the Tigers.
Finney led the offense with four kills (.800) with deMarrais (.429) and Iliff (.500) each adding three.
Mizzou hit a match-best .393 in set #2 and finished Sunday hitting .279.
THIRD SET (25-22 Lindenwood, Mizzou leads 2-1)
The sides battled to a 7-7 tie early, with neither team achieving a lead larger than two points.
Lindenwood used a 5-0 run from that point to open a 12-7 lead.
Mizzou cut into the deficit, propelled by a three-point run in which Vernon was the main catalyst by registering a kill then serving back-to-back aces, trimming the Lions margin to 13-11.
The back-and-forth action continued until MU utilized a three-point surge to claim a 19-18 edge. Vernon and Isenberg each registered a kill while Crownover served an ace during the run which forced a Lindenwood timeout.
Lindenwood then scored three of the ensuing four points to take a 21-20 lead and force the first Mizzou timeout. Then, two Lindenwood points later, MU called their final timeout trailing 23-20.
Following the timeout, Missouri defended set point once before dropping the third to Lindenwood.
FOURTH SET (25-13 Mizzou, Mizzou wins 3-1)
The teams opened the set trading points before Missouri came out hot and went on a 10-point streak. Kills from deMarrais, Finney and Vernon along with a series of Lindenwood errors and two service aces from deMarrais allowed the Tigers to dominate early, 14-4.
After their extensive rally streak, Mizzou took the lead and never gave it up. Crownover, Haith and freshman Aspen Maxwell each recorded blocks in the set, as Maxwell made her first career collegiate appearance.
Mizzou extended its lead to 20-6 before a Naomi Franco kill secured the victory for the Tigers, 25-13.
MU was led by a balanced attack in the fourth set with Finney again leading the Tigers with three kills (.500) with deMarrais and Vernon (.500) adding two each.
MATCH NOTES
- Marina Crownover logged her first career double-double, totaling 37 assists and 11 digs.
- Marina Crownover set new career-highs with both numbers in the outing, while tying a career-best three aces to go with one kill and a block. She has posted 30 or more assists in each of her last two starts.
- Jordan Iliff cleared double-digit kills for the eighth time in nine matches, notching 13 in the contest.
- Jordan Iliff also added four digs, two aces and a block.
- Mychael Vernon also completed her eighth match with at least 10 kills this season, tallying 12 (.308) while also putting up four digs, two aces and a pair of blocks.
- Mychael Vernon totaled 11 or more kills in each of the three Mizzou Invitational matches.
- Colleen Finney recorded 11 kills on a .667 rate, making it the highest number of kills for the graduate student this season.
- Colleen Finney added three blocks and a dig. She notched seven or more kills in each match of the Mizzou Invitational.
- Janet deMarrais added seven kills and matched a career-high with three aces (five times in her career).
- Freshman Aspen Maxwell played in her first career collegiate match, recording a block.
- Maya Sands tallied 20 digs, marking her third match above 20 this season, and 17th over the threshold as a Tiger.
- Morgan Isenberg made her second-straight start of the campaign, notching three kills and two blocks.
- Mizzou has now set a new season-high in aces in three straight contests, serving 12 against Lindenwood topping the previous high of 10 against UT Martin. The last time the Tigers hit that number was Nov. 12, 2023, against Auburn.
- Sunday’s announced attendance was 3,069, making it back-to-back matches with over 3,000 fans at the Hearnes Center.
- Sunday marked the first meeting between Lindenwood and Missouri.
LOOKING AHEAD
- Missouri next heads back on the road with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to wrap non-conference play as they prepare to partake in the Lipscomb Tournament.
- Mizzou will take on Lipscomb on Thursday, Sept. 19 with first serve set for 6 p.m. CT before squaring off with Illinois on Friday, Sept. 20. Friday’s action is slated to begin at 4 p.m. CT. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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