Mizzou volleyball spent Friday in a pair of five-set grinders at the Bowling Green/Toledo Invitational, and both matches ended the same way: with the Tigers coming up short after plenty of fight.
Against Dayton, Missouri leaned on a huge night from its offense and several career-best performances, but the Flyers escaped with a 16-14 win in the fifth set. Later, Toledo pulled away in the deciding frame as the Tigers dropped another marathon.
The first match gave Missouri plenty to build on, even in defeat. Senior Grace O’Reilly turned in career highs with 19 kills and five digs while hitting .419.
Fifth-year Kimani Johnson added a career-best 18 kills and finished at a season-best .421. Freshman Maizy Agnello also reached double figures, posting a career-high 11 kills and adding six digs, the most she’s had in a match.
Missouri opened the Dayton match well enough, getting early kills from Felder and O’Reilly and an ace from libero Ainoah Cruz to build a 6-3 lead in the first set. Dayton answered with a surge of its own, though, and eventually pushed out to 22-16. The Tigers kept scrapping and trimmed the gap to 24-22 on an Agnello kill before the Flyers closed it out.
The response in Set 2 was emphatic. Mizzou jumped out on a 5-0 run, stretched the lead to 7-1 and never let Dayton back in. O’Reilly powered the frame with back-to-back kills to make it a nine-point edge, and Missouri rolled from there behind kills from Larkin, Felder, Smith and Johnson.
Set 3 followed a similar pattern of momentum swings, but Missouri found enough answers to take control late. Larkin started the frame with a kill, Smith and Larkin tied it at 10-10, and a block by Larkin and Johnson gave the Tigers a 16-14 lead. O’Reilly added two more kills to widen the margin before Agnello finished it off at 25-20.
Dayton fought back in the fourth. Missouri got kills from Felder and O’Reilly to keep pace, and Johnson’s kill tied things at 22-22, but the Flyers took the final three points to force a fifth.
The last set was tight throughout. Dayton grabbed an early edge, O’Reilly helped Missouri answer, and kills from Felder and Smith put the Tigers in front.
Johnson and Agnello kept the pressure on, but Dayton tied it at 12-12, nudged ahead again, and held off one more Missouri push. Johnson and Felder answered at 14-14, but Dayton got the last two points and ended it.
Missouri’s attack was productive all afternoon. The Tigers finished with a season-high 73 kills and 64 assists, while Cruz piled up 30 digs, a season high and just six off her career best.
Missouri is now 2-2 all-time against Dayton. Dawn Sullivan’s record moved to 172-74 overall and 63-36 at Mizzou.
The second match against Toledo followed a similar script, though the Tigers showed again that they could battle back from a rough start. Senior Sierra Dudley recorded her first double-double of the season with 18 assists and 14 digs, while Felder led the way with a career-high 16 kills. Agnello added 10 kills for her second straight match in double figures, and junior Tia Phinezy finished with a season-high six blocks.
Toledo took the first set 25-17 after building an early cushion and keeping it. Agnello had five kills in the frame, but the Rockets controlled the rest.
Missouri answered in Set 2 with a fast start. Felder had three early kills, Smith added one, and the Tigers built a 6-2 lead.
Batie chipped in an ace, and Lobaglio delivered three straight kills to make it 9-3. Toledo eventually clawed back, tied the set at 14, and then finished stronger to win 25-21.
The Tigers grabbed the third set after Phinezy’s presence at the net started to matter more. Missouri used two blocks from Phinezy and O’Reilly to spark a four-point run, then kept the set close with kills from Lobaglio, Felder and Millie Bauer. Phinezy added two more kills and a solo block, and Felder’s two straight kills helped Missouri take it 25-22.
Set 4 was Missouri’s cleanest frame of the day. The Tigers opened up a 7-2 lead behind three Felder kills and back-to-back aces from Phinezy.
Another ace from Batie and a kill from Bauer stretched the margin further, and when Toledo cut it to three, Missouri answered with a 10-1 run. Agnello and Lobaglio helped finish off the 25-14 set and send it to a fifth.
But Toledo took control early in the decider, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. Johnson stopped the run with a kill, and Agnello added another, but the Rockets stayed in front. Missouri never fully caught up, and Toledo closed out the match 15-10.
Missouri is now 2-2 all-time against Toledo. The Tigers also extended their streak to nine straight matches with at least 40 kills and 30 assists. Felder now has double-digit kills in six matches this season.
The Tigers finish the weekend on Saturday, Sept. 19, against Bowling Green in Bowling Green.
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