COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri Volleyball team (3-3) will host its home-opening 2024 Mizzou Invitational this weekend at the Hearnes Center.
Mizzou will face Kansas City (1-5) and UT Martin (2-5) on Friday with start times set for 11:30 a.m., CT and 6:30 p.m. The Tigers conclude the Invitational Sunday with a meeting against Lindenwood (2-4) set for 4 p.m., CT.
All three Mizzou matches will be broadcasted on SEC Network+. Missouri’s Sunday match against Lindenwood will feature Casey Roehl and former Tiger libero Riley Rohler on the broadcast.
Tickets for each match of the 2024 Mizzou Invitational are $5 and can be purchased online. The Saturday neutral match between UT Martin and Kansas City is free admission.
PROMOTIONS
• Friday’s home-opening match against Kansas City is Field Trip Day where local Columbia Public School students will attend the contest.
• The Friday evening contest against UT Martin features a Welcome to the Zou student tailgate and t-shirt giveaway, while supplies last.
• The tournament finale against Lindenwood is Kids Day with a Truman Squish Mellow giveaway, while supplies last. Junior Tigers receive free admission.
• The 2024 Tigers will sign autographs following the UT Martin and Lindenwood matches.
SERIES HISTORY
• Mizzou leads the all-time series against Kansas City, 31-5.
• The two teams last faced off in 2021, with the visiting Roos posting a 3-1 win on Aug. 27, 2021 in Columbia, Missouri.
• The Tigers will face UT Martin and Lindenwood both for the first time in program history this weekend at the 2024 Mizzou Invitational.
NKU INVITATIONAL RECAP
• Mizzou went 1-2 over week two’s 2024 NKU Invitational Sept. 6-8.
• The Tigers opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over host Northern Kentucky before a pair of losses to No. 4 Louisville and South Dakota.
• Jordan Iliff paced the offense, notching 44 kills (4.00 kills/set) with 30 digs (2.72 digs/set) over the three matches. She notched a career-best matching 22 kills on a .381 hitting percentage against NKU. She also notched a pair of double-doubles.
• Jordan Iliff ranks in the top-10 in the SEC for kills per set (3.95, eighth, 79 kills) and points per set (4.43, ninth, 88.5 points, 10th).
• Mychael Vernon and Janet deMarrais were second and third, respectively, offensively tallying 41 (3.73 kills/set) and 40 (4.64 kills/set). deMarrais tallied a season-best 20 kills against NKU.
• Setter Sierra Dudley totaled 96 assists with 15 digs while Marina Crownover added 36 assists and 11 digs. Dudley finished one assist shy of tying her career high, posting 59 with 11 digs as Mizzou hit a season-best .359 at NKU.
• Sierra Dudley ranks second in the SEC with 11.80 assists per set (177 assists, seventh in the SEC).
• Marina Crownover dished out 21 assists over the final two sets against No. 4 Louisville along with five digs and a kill. It marked her second career 20-plus assist match and was one off her personal high set in Mizzou’s opener against Drake on Aug. 30.
• Libero Maya Sands grabbed 50 digs (4.55 digs/set) over the tournament.
• Regan Haith chipped in 10 kills on a .412 hitting percentage against No.4 Louisville. It matched a Mizzou personal best for the transfer from Illinois State. She is hitting .380 this season which ranks sixth in the SEC.
MAYA SANDS
• Maya Sands, the 2023 SEC Libero of the Year, leads the conference (13th in the NCAA) thus far with 5.10 digs per set (102 digs in 2024, second in the SEC).
• The junior from Rock Falls, Illinois, has posted double-digit digs in every match this season.
• Sands totaled 21 digs against the NKU Invitational host Norse for her second 20-plus dig match of the campaign.
• She also compiled 17 digs in the tournament finale against South Dakota.
• Sands surpassed 1,000 career digs against NC State and now has 1,056 in her career (644 at Mizzou, 412 at UNLV).
MYCHAEL VERNON
• Mychael Vernon has started in all six matches for Mizzou since transferring from Oregon State.
• She opened the NKU Invitational with 17 kills and 10 digs against the host Norse. It marked her ninth consecutive double-digit kill match dating back to her senior season at Oregon State. Vernon snapped the streak with nine kills against No. 4 Louisville.
• The graduate student from Ossining, New York, has posted four double-doubles as a Tiger, concluding the NKU Invitational with 15 kills and 13 digs.
• Vernon ranks fifth in the SEC for kills with 85 in 2024 (4.25 kills/set). She also is sixth in the league, averaging 4.80 points per set (96.0 points, seventh in the SEC).
MIZZOU DEBUTS
• Defensive specialist Alayna Pearson made her Mizzou debut over the NKU Invitational, competing against No. 4 Louisville and South Dakota. The Texas A&M transfer from Overland Park, Kansas, posted a pair of digs in her first match repping the Black & Gold.
• Four Tigers also made their Mizzou debuts at the season-opening Bluejay Invitational. Regan Haith, Kiaraliz Perez Catala, Mychael Vernon and Marina Crownover all made starts over the weekend in Omaha.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
• The 2024 campaign marks the second for head coach Dawn Sullivan who led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2020 as she was selected SEC Coach of the Year this past fall.
• During her first season, Sullivan guided Missouri to an impressive 18-13 mark including a .500 (9-9) record in SEC play, surpassing the Tigers’ combined win total from the past two seasons (nine in 2022, five in 2021).
• In SEC play, Missouri went on both three-match and four-match win streaks in 2023, while also securing five wins over top-50 AVCA (based on KPI, Pablo, and RPI rankings) teams and nine wins over top-100 AVCA teams including two ranked wins over Auburn (#23 and #24, Oct. 20 & Nov. 12).
• The eight-win overall improvement from 2022 (nine wins), tied for 12th nationally and ranked second among Power Five institutions.
• Mizzou recieved votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll over the first two weeks of the season. The Tigers will face eight teams (nine matches) ranked in the preseason top 25.
• Mizzou returns six of seven starters from 2023 including a trio of All-SEC performers in Maya Sands (SEC Libero of the Year), Jordan Iliff and Sierra Dudley. Sands and Iliff also earned AVCA Southeast All-Region recognition.
PRESEASON ALL-SEC
• Jordan Iliff was one of 18 student-athletes named to the 2024 Preseason Volleyball All-SEC Team.
• The St. Louis native led Missouri over her junior season in 2023 with 388 kills (3.40 kills per set), swinging at a .236 clip.
• Iliff, a 2023 AVCA Volleyball Southeast All-Region Honorable Mention and 2023 All-SEC Selection, started and played in all 31 matches in 2023. She also led the Tigers in points with 468 (4.11 points per set) this past season.
• Iliff was named to the 2024 USA Volleyball Women’s Collegiate National Team and trained with the Olympic Team June 30-July 6 in Anaheim, California.
• She ranked fifth for serve effectiveness (33.1 percent) in the NCAA Power 4, according to 2023 VolleyMetrics data.
PRESEASON POLL
• Mizzou was selected to finish sixth in the 2024 SEC Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 127 points.
• Texas, the two-time defending National Champion, was voted the preseason favorite for the 2024 SEC volleyball season. The Longhorns secured 14 of the 15 first-place votes and 196 points to earn the top spot in the preseason poll. Florida earned one first-place vote and 174 points to claim second place in the poll.
• Kentucky, who won its seventh consecutive SEC title and 10th overall title in 2023, placed third with 173 points, while Georgia took fourth place with 148 points.
NATIONAL TV COVERAGE
• Five Mizzou volleyball matches will be featured on SEC Network this season.
• Missouri will first take on Kentucky in Lexington on Oct. 6, before hosting Mississippi State (Oct. 20).
• Other SEC Network matchups include Texas (Nov. 1), Georgia (Nov. 6) and South Carolina (Nov. 10).
RETURNERS
• With the trio of All-SEC performers in Maya Sands, Jordan Iliff and Sierra Dudley, Mizzou returns six of seven starters from 2023.
• Dudley ranked fifth in SEC play with 10.90 assists per set (730 assists) in 2023 for SEC All-Freshman Team honors. The Spartanburg, South Carolina, native, was the top true freshman setter in the conference in 2023, totaling 1,161 assists.
• Outside hitter Janet deMarrais was second on Mizzou offensively with 357 kills (3.25 kills/set) and started in the final 20 matches.
• Middle blocker Morgan Isenberg led the Tigers defensively, picking up 138 total blocks (1.23 blocks/set) in her first season as the full-time starter.
• Middle blocker Colleen Finney rounds out the returning Mizzou starters, after compiling 154 kills (1.38 kills/set) and 68 blocks (0.61 blocks/set) in her first season donning the Black & Gold.
NEWCOMERS
• MU added 11 players (six freshmen, five transfers) to complete the 22-member squad. The 2024 freshman are Morgan Jones, Tia Phinezy, Vivian Parker, Aspen Maxwell, Grace Sweeney, and Claire Morrisseywho ranked third nationally in the 2024 recruiting class.
• Mizzou also added transfers Mychael Vernon (2023 All-Pac-12 outside hitter at Oregon State), Marina Crownover (two-time NCAA National Champion setter at Texas), Regan Haith (2022 All-Missouri Valley Conference Freshman Team middle blocker at Illinois State), Kiaraliz Perez Catala (2023 Western Athletic Conference Libero of the Year at UTRGV) and Alayna Pearson (Overland Park, Kansas, libero who spent her freshman season at Texas A&M).
LOOKING AHEAD
• Following the Tigers’ 2024 Mizzou Invitational, MU will hit the road to wrap non-conference play. Mizzou will trek to Nashville, Tennessee, to face Lipscomb and Illinois Sept. 19-20.
• Mizzou then opens its SEC slate with a double road weekend at LSU and Texas A&M Sept. 27 and 29.
FOLLOW THE TIGERS
• For all the latest information on Mizzou Volleyball, please visit MUTigers.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Tigers on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
