Mizzou vs. Ole Miss: Live Blog

The Tigers just took the floor for pregame warmups for today’s 12:00 match against Ole Miss, so once again that means I get to protect my computer and mug of coffee with my life here on press row. There are a few (four) vocal Ole Miss students in the stands today who look like they’re having a lot of fun—so let’s see if Mizzou can keep them quiet with a few good sets.

Some pregame notes and scores to pass along:

• Brigham Young swept Texas State 25-17, 25-22, 25-16 in this morning’s match.
• All-time, Mizzou is 4-3 against Ole Miss. The last meeting of the two teams came in 2007 in Oxford, when the Rebels downed the then-No. 20 Tigers 3-2.
• Yesterday’s Big 12 winners: Texas A&M (3-0 vs. Iona, 3-0 vs. Virginia), Baylor (3-0 vs. Southeastern Louisiana, 3-0 vs. Houston), Oklahoma (3-0 vs. Houston Baptist. 3-0 vs. Rice), Iowa State (3-0 vs. UW-Milwaukee)
• And yesterday’s Big 12 losers: Nebraska (3-0 vs. Michigan), Kansas State (3-2 vs. Minnesota), Kansas (3-1 vs. Middle Tennessee State), Texas Tech (3-0 vs. Creighton).
• Texas, which enters the season ranked No.2 in the nation, kicks off their season tonight in San Diego against Long Beach State and San Diego.

Once again, check back starting around noon for regular updates from today’s match. I’ll have a separate live blog up for the BYU match at 6:30 tonight. Thanks for everyone who read the site yesterday—we had a pretty successful day in hits for a blog that just got started this week. Keep on reading!

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Roster note about Ole Miss: they have a grand total of zero players from the state of Mississippi on their team. Eight players are from Texas, three from Illinois, two from Kentucky, and one from Colorado and Georgia.

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Lei Wang-Francisco’s having a lot of success with her little sneaky quick-tip-over-the-net shot and Mizzou is taking advantage of a slew of mistakes from the Rebels. Ole Miss just called timeout with the Tigers up 11-5.

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Ole Miss calls a timeout with Mizzou up a touchdown, 21-14. Great team effort so far by the Tigers, who have done a nice job limiting errors here in the first set.

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Mizzou calls a timeout on set point up 24-19. We’ve seen good play from pretty much everyone who’s set foot on the floor in this first set for the Tigers, just to be a little bit redundant.

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And Rosa Medrano tallies a set-ending kill to give Mizzou an impressive 25-19 win to open today’s match. Let’s see if Ole Miss can play a little bit cleaner in the second set here.

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Side note: you know who I wish was coaching the Ole Miss volleyball team? DACOACHO!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Ole Miss football, and if you’re a football fan, I highly suggest reading Meat Market by Bruce Feldman.

But back to the sport at hand—the second set just got underway with Ole Miss jumping out to an early 2-1 lead.

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First set stat notes:

• Rosa Medrano had a HUGE set, racking up seven kills to lead the Tigers. Amanda Hantouli had three while Brittney Brimmage and Lei Wang-Francisco had two apiece. Catie Wilson also contributed with one kill.
• Any time you hit .355, you’re going to have a good chance to win by a pretty wide margin—and that’s exactly what Mizzou did in the first set.
• Julianna Klein’s biggest contribution didn’t come in the kill department, but in digs. Klein tallied four digs, second-most to Caitlyn Vann’s five. Priscilla Armendariz also picked up four digs.

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Ole Miss calls for a timeout with Mizzou winning 16-12.

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Close set going on here. Mizzou just called timeout with the score tied at 21—Ole Miss has certainly played better since calling timeout earlier in the set.

Also, an animation on the scoreboard here at Hearnes had Truman the Tiger dancing with nine penguins. Interesting.

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Ole Miss now calls timeout with Mizzou up 23-21 after a Medrano kill and an error by the Rebels.

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Julianna Klein picks up a kill to end the set as Mizzou wins 25-22. The Tigers now have a chance to sweep their second straight match if they can take the third set here.

I’ll get stat updates once the sheet is handed to me. But scanning the stands, a few other Mizzou athletes are in attendance including men’s basketball guard J.T. Tiller and football defensive tackle Jaron Baston.

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Stat notes from the second set:

• Rosa Medrano is still having a huge match. She tallied six kills in the second set to give her 13 on the match so far, but perhaps more impressive is her .550 hitting percentage on 20 swings. That’s, well, really good. Medrano also has the team lead in digs with eight.
• Catie Wilson is doing well, too, hitting .800 on five attempts with four kills (three in the third set).
• Julianna Klein got on the board with four kills in the set.
• Overall for the match, Mizzou is hitting .377. The Tigers hit a whopping .400 in the second set.

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Ole Miss is playing much better in this third set. Mizzou just called a timeout with the Rebels winning 11-7. Still early, though.

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Nice, nice rally by Mizzou to force an Ole Miss timeout. The Rebels are still winning, but Mizzou’s on a run here to make it 16-14. Medrano serving after the timeout.

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Catie Wilson just picked up a service ace to tie it at 17. We got ourselves a game here.

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21-20 now. We’ve seen some incredible efforts here—including Paola Ampudia running into the Cost Cutters ad off the court to keep a point alive in a Derek Jeter-esque effort. Mizzou isn’t playing their best, but they’re battling right there with Ole Miss in this set.

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25-22 Mizzou wins on a ridiculous Medrano kill. Awesome. Now I gotta clear off press row real quick—more updates in about an hour.