Felder's scorching second set and Morrissey's clutch fifth lead Mizzou volleyball to five-set win

“I feel like these are just the moments that you hope for; why not make the most of it and just get after it when you’re given the chance," Morrissey said.

From the jump, this match was competitive. The two teams were back-and-forth up to the media timeout. Missouri trailed 14-13, but then back-to-back kills from Eva Smith and Grace O’Reilly put them in front. After the break, Kimani Johnson finished the 3-0 run with a kill of her own.

But Auburn created a 4-0 run of its own, and it forced Missouri coach Dawn Sullivan to call her first timeout of the match. The Tigers hung tough, and briefly held the lead again, but ultimately another four points in a row from Auburn put Missouri behind 1-0 for a fourth straight match.

“I just thought we were pretty high error early on,” Sullivan said in a press conference after the match. “Whether it was offensively, attacking-wise, nets or just mishaps.”

They just needed to clean up the level of play, take bigger swings and be aggressive, but smart, in their decisions. Early on, it looked like they wouldn’t clean things up.

With 16 ties and seven lead changes, Set 2 featured just as much back-and-forth from the two teams. Auburn jumped out in front early with a 5-0 run to force a Missouri timeout. The black-and-gold came right back with a punch of its own to keep things close.

Felder was on fire throughout the entire set, recording 10 kills with just one error. The final heat check was her 10th kill that also gave Missouri a 26-24 Set 2 win and snapped the five-set losing streak it was on.

In what felt like a reversal from Friday’s outcome, Auburn came out needing to win Set 3. The visitors knew they needed a big win and to try to get Missouri on its heels. They did just that.

Auburn shot the chances of Missouri taking the match lead as it jumped out to a 9-2 lead behind four-straight then five-straight points, one after the other, eventually leading 15-6 at the media timeout.

Auburn coasted to a 25-17 win and could see the finish line. But Missouri took it in stride, and it found itself flipping the script in Set 4. The message from Sullivan was simple.

“For me, it’s just how bad do they want it?” Sullivan said. “I think that’s when you started seeing them really get after it defensively.”

The home team got up 11-4 and forced Auburn coach Brent Crouch to call both of his timeouts for the set. It led 15-6 at the media timeout, and after Auburn got within one, Missouri finished the set off with a 5-0 run.

“(I’m) really impressed with the way they showed up in that set,” Sullivan said. “One with the defense, but also just the offensive transition, just incredible.”

With a decisive Set 5 now on the table, the question truly was, who is the hungrier team, and for a moment it looked like Auburn might be, jumping out to a 7-5 lead and forcing Sullivan to call a timeout.

Now, sometimes, the coaches take a second to get in the huddle as they look at stats or discuss what they need to talk about while their team gets water and catches their breath. Not this time, though. Sullivan was in the huddle the entire time talking to her team.

“If I remember right, it was maybe one or two points, and I was like, we have to stop it right here,” Sullivan said.

Behind two instances of back-to-back kills from Morrissey, Missouri was in position to win the match, and Johnson did it for them with her ninth kill of the match.

Missouri finished the match with 10 blocks and 72 digs. Tia Phinezy led the front line with seven blocks and Ainoah Cruz held things down in the back row with 26 digs while also getting some help from Zoey Matias-Lopez, who had seven digs.

The Tigers also had 63 kills and 29 errors for a .195 hitting percentage. Felder, Morrissey and Johnson led the way while freshman Lydia Stahley recorded seven kills and freshmen Eva Smith and Maizy Agnello recorded five.

Missouri (8-8, 2-3) continues its conference play against Mississippi State (13-3, 3-2) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Hearnes Center.