Mizzou volleyball set for second-straight NCAA Tournament berth
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
For the second-straight season, the Mizzou volleyball team will look to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
You can watch the full interview with head coach Dawn Sullivan in the video player below.
The No. 7-seeded Tigers are headed to the Dallas Regional (hosted by SMU), where they will face Texas State in round one of the Pittsburgh Quarter on Dec. 5 at 4 p.m. CT. Assuming MU advances to round two, the team will either face Wichita State or No. 2-seeded SMU in the second round of the Pittsburgh Quarter.
Along with the NCAA Tournament berth, MU also captured several SEC postseason honors. Jordan Iliff, Mychael Vernon and Maya Sands were named first-team All-SEC selections and their teammate Marina Crownover was awarded second-team All-SEC honors. Sands was also crowned the SEC's Libero of the Year for back-to-back seasons while Vernon was also voted the SEC's Newcomer of the Year. This was the first campaign since 2018 that Mizzou had four All-SEC selections.
You can watch the full interviews with Tiger volleyball standouts Jordan Iliff, Mychael Vernon, Maya Sands, Colleen Finney and Regan Haith in the video players below.
The postseason run will come after Mizzou finished the regular season 20-8 overall and 11-5 in SEC action. The Tigers also finished in the top portion of the conference, as they were, at one point, in a fight for first place in the league with Kentucky.
Coach Sullivan and company will be making the program's 19th appearance in the big dance. The postseason run will also mark the second time in just two seasons at the helm in Columbia that Sullivan has led a team to an NCAA berth. Before she took over as head coach, Mizzou had not made a run since 2020.
In MU's 2023-24 postseason appearance, the Tigers fell in the second round of the Nebraska Quarter in a meeting with then-No. 1 Cornhuskers.
Mizzou is 18-18 all-time at the NCAA Volleyball Championships.
The first and second rounds of the 2024 tournament will be played from Thursday, Dec. 5 through Saturday, Dec. 7. Teams will then move on to Regionals, which run from Thursday, Dec. 12 through Sunday, Dec. 15.
The competition is then dwindled down to four, when the national semifinals begin at 5:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, Dec. 19.
Finally, the season will come to an end on Sunday, Dec. 22 when the National Championship will be played at 2 p.m. CT on KMIZ.
