NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Missouri volleyball (8-3) earned a hard-fought win in five sets (25-17, 22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12) over Braggin’ Rights rival Illinois (7-2) Friday afternoon at Allen Arena.
With the victory, Mizzou concluded the 2024 Lippy Invitational with a 2-0 record with wins over the Illini and Lipscomb and head into SEC play on a five-match win streak.
Mizzou was led by a career-best 24 kills from senior Jordan Iliff. Iliff recorded her sixth double-double of the season, adding 14 digs which sets a new season-high. The St. Louis native added five aces and three blocks to lead a trio of Tigers in double-digits attacking.
Redshirt sophomore setter Marina Crownover also had a career day, setting new career-highs with 59 assists and 15 digs. Crownover recorded the second double-double of her career. The Austin, Texas, native, added two aces and a block over her fifth Mizzou start.
Graduate student Mychael Vernon logged the third Mizzou double-double of the night with 13 kills and 12 digs, her fifth such outing this season. Vernon added on three blocks in the winning effort.
Junior Janet deMarrais crossed the 500 career kill milestone (508) in the contest, totaling 15 to go along with two blocks and a dig.
Five players had double-digit digs. Libero Maya Sands posted 12 with four assists while Kiaraliz Perez Catala notched a Mizzou personal-best 10 digs.
FIRST SET (Mizzou wins 25-17, Mizzou leads 1-0)
Crownover helped serve MU to an early 5-0 lead, collecting an ace along with kills from Iliff and Isenberg.
A kill by Colleen Finney gave Mizzou an 11-5 edge before the Illini climbed back with five unanswered to trim the Tigers’ lead to 11-10.
Mizzou surged from there, taking four of next five points to take a 15-11 lead into the media timeout. Iliff registered two kills while Vernon and deMarrais each added one to provide the Tigers the lead at the break.
Missouri scored back-to-back after the media timeout, again with deMarrais and Iliff hitting for kills to put Mizzou ahead 17-11 and force Illinois to call their first timeout. The run wound up reaching 5-0 in all stretching across the timeouts.
The opposing sides traded points from there before MU scored consecutive points off, of Illini errors forcing Illinois to call their final timeout.
Vernon connected on a pair of kills to give the Tigers a set point opportunity (24-17) before scoring a block with Morgan Isenberg to put the first set away, 25-17 in favor of Missouri.
Vernon (.375) and Iliff (.364) led the way with five kills each for MU, while Crownover piled up 14 assists in the first set Friday.
Mizzou hit a match-high .333 over the opening set Friday.
SECOND SET (Illinois wins 25-22, Match tied 1-1)
After four early ties MU went on a 4-0 run to take a 9-6 lead. Finney and Vernon contributed kills during the run.
Illinois responded with a 5-0 scoring run to take an 11-9 lead and force Mizzou to call their first timeout.
The Illini run grew to 7-0 with two more out of the break before Mizzou tallied four of the next five points to trim the Illinois lead to 14-13, and bring on their first timeout. Isenberg notched a pair of kills and deMarrais added another.
From there, the back-and-forth contest continued as the sides were tied five different times up to 21-21. All in all, the second stanza featured 10 ties and four lead changes.
Illinois followed that up with three straight points to force set point with a 24-21 lead.
An Isenberg kill made it 24-22 and held off Illinois once but a service error on the next point closed the second, 25-22, with the Illini on top.
THIRD SET (Mizzou wins 25-21, Mizzou leads 2-1)
After trailing early by three, Mizzou used a 5-1 run to take an 8-7 lead. The run featured a pair of kills from Vernon and one from both deMarrais and Iliff.
The two teams would exchange points up until a Finney kill gave MU a 14-12 edge and forced an Illinois timeout.
The Illini would rally to tie the set at 17 apiece, then Mizzou scored two straight to force the final Illinois timeout. Out of the break, MU scored twice more to stretch its run to four straight. Crownover served an ace, Iliff slammed a pair of kills along with one from Vernon to give the Tigers a 21-17 lead.
deMarrais added another kill to give Missouri set point, and the Tigers finished the third two points later thanks to an Illinois error (25-21).
Iliff posted six kills on a .267 hitting percentage in set #3 while Crownover dished out 15 assists.
FOURTH SET (Illinois wins 25-21, Match tied 2-2)
The fourth set was tightly contested early, with nine ties up until a 12-12 tie, until Illinois used a four-point run to create separation and take a 15-12 lead into the media timeout.
Illinois would extend the rally to 5-0 (16-12) following a kill from Raina Terry.
Mizzou then scored three straight to get within one at 16-15, and then consecutive points later on to cut the deficit down to 20-18 and force Illinois to call timeout.
Illinois followed up its timeout with a 3-0 run which saw Missouri burn both of their timeouts. The run gave the Illini a 23-18 edge.
Mizzou took three of the next four points out of the timeout, but it was not enough to hold off Illinois as the Illini finished the fourth out, 25-21.
A trio of Tigers had four kills led by Finney’s .800 hitting percentage.
FIFTH SET (Mizzou wins 15-12, Mizzou wins 3-2)
Mizzou opened up a 5-2 lead in the fifth, capped by an Iliff ace, to force Illinois to call timeout.
After the stoppage, Illinois went on their own 5-2 run to even the set at seven apiece.
Mizzou then scored three straight, including two Iliff kills, to take a 10-7 lead and force another Illini stoppage.
Four of the next five points went the way of Illinois to knot things at 11-11 and bring on the first Mizzou timeout.
After the timeout, kills from deMarrais and Iliff along with an Illini error gave Mizzou match point, where Iliff served another ace to close the match for Missouri.
MATCH NOTES
- Janet deMarrais crossed the 500 career kills milestone (508) in the contest.
- Janet deMarrais’ 15 kills were accompanied by two blocks and a dig.
- Janet deMarrais notched double-digit kills over each of the Lippy Invite matches this week in the Music City.
- Jordan Iliff set a new career-high with 24 kills, besting her previous mark of 22.
- Jordan Iliff also recorded her sixth double-double of the season with a season-best 14 digs.
- Jordan Iliff added five aces and three blocks over her outing.
- Jordan Iliff totaled 19 or more kills over each of the two Lippy Invite matches, finishing with 43 kills (4.78 kills/set) and 27 digs (3.00 digs/set).
- Mychael Vernon compiled her fifth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 12 digs. Vernon added three blocks.
- Marina Crownover enjoyed her second career double-double, setting new career-highs in both assists, 59, and digs, 15.
- Marina Crownover added two aces and a block over her fifth Mizzou start.
- Maya Sands added 12 digs and four assists.
- Kiaraliz Perez Catala set a Mizzou career-best 10 digs, along with an ace.
- Colleen Finney secured nine kills (.471) with four blocks and a dig.
- Morgan Isenberg finished with six kills and five blocks.
- Five players had double-digit digs, and three Tigers posted double-doubles.
- Mizzou heads into SEC play riding a five-match win streak. The Tigers last went on such a streak Aug. 25 to Sept. 2, 2023.
- The match marks the first of the season for the Tigers that reached five sets, making Missouri 1-0 in such matches.
- Missouri now trails the all-time series with Illinois 2-7-1, with the win marking Mizzou’s first over the Illini since 1984.
LOOKING AHEAD
- Missouri opens its SEC slate with a double road weekend at LSU and Texas A&M Sept. 27 and 29.
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