MU volleyball team nets first Big 12 sweep of season

COLUMBIA — For the third straight match, the Missouri women’s volleyball team stormed to a two-game lead Saturday against Texas Tech. This time, in contrast to five-game wins against Oklahoma and Colorado, the Tigers made sure that the match wouldn’t go any longer than necessary.

MU jumped on the Red Raiders in the third game to complete its first sweep of the year in Big 12 Conference play, 30-23, 31-29, 30-16 at Hearnes Center.

“We’ve talked about that a lot, and we have to do that,” coach Wayne Kreklow said. “Our margin for error’s not as big as it once was, because we don’t have another big swing that can bail you out of trouble.”

What MU (10-6, 3-4 in the Big 12) did have was defense, recording 41 digs and 13 blocks to keep the Red Raider (7-10, 1-7) offense out of sync.

“It releases a lot of pressure, because we don’t have to think about covering all of the court, but we have some amazing diggers on this team,” libero Tatum Ailes said. “They should be doing this anyway.”