Missouri Tigers volleyball team selected for NCAA Tournament. Here’s MU’s assignment
Much can change in 364 days. And this has proven especially true for the University of Missouri volleyball team.
The Tigers gathered in the Columns Club atop the east side of Faurot Field, with plenty of nerves across the entire squad, ahead of Sunday’s 2023 NCAA Volleyball Tournament Selection show.
“We were definitely nervous,” Missouri junior Jordan Iliff said. “We just kept being like, let’s manifest. Like just keep speaking positivity into the universe.”
That nervousness didn’t last long.
Year 1 under Tigers coach Dawn Sullivan took its next step in proving the program’s upward trajectory as Mizzou earned a No. 8 seed in the Nebraska Regional of the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Sunday evening.
The Tigers were the fourth team to shine across the bracket, following overall No. 1 seed Nebraska, Long Beach State and Delaware.
Missouri will head to Lincoln, Neb., and take on Delaware on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
“Nothing is ever given in your life,” Sullivan said. “You just feel blessed when you have opportunities and you make sure you take the full (advantage) of every opportunity you’re given.”
Sullivan has worked wonders with opportunity.
On Nov. 27, 2022, Missouri made the decision to fire Joshua Taylor after a 9-19 season. This marked a conscious effort to improve the school’s volleyball program, as MU did with its men’s basketball program earlier that year.
Now, 364 days later, Sullivan has led MU to a 17-12 overall record and a 9-9 conference record with a roster comprised of a few returnees and transfers that made their mark on the SEC’s postseason awards list.
Sullivan was one of four SEC Co-Coaches of the Year. Sophomore Maya Sands, who followed Sullivan to Columbia from UNLV, was named the SEC Libero of the Year. Sands and Iliff were selected to the All-SEC Team. Freshman setter Sierra Dudley earned an All-SEC Freshman Team nod, too.
With so much in place, the future is bright. This is the first NCAA Tournament berth for Missouri since 2020, and 18th overall.
“You put in so much work throughout the whole year, you just get to kind of just enjoy,” Sullivan said of Sunday’s selection. “You’re obviously going to keep working, but you get to sit back and just take it in for a moment, to just be like, ‘Wow.’ This is really special and this is the one time we really get to do this with this group.”
It means plenty for players like Iliff, too. She chose to remain at Missouri after the coaching change. It wasn’t a decision Iliff made lightly, but Sullivan’s goals reflected what she wanted.
“She seemed just like really sure of it,” Iliff said. “It really made me feel like I could trust it.”
That trust rang true from Iliff to the seven players who transferred into the program and helped rebuild. Throughout the season, the team had a goal of making the NCAA Tournament written on a whiteboard.
That goal has been checked off, and now the Tigers can dream higher.
‘It’s a start of something new,” Mizzou graduate student Colleen Finney said. “Yes, it’s great that we are making the NCAA tournament right now, but we are not satisfied.
“We really want to make it past just the first round and be able ... to hopefully get an NCAA championship one day.”
The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.
