The Missouri volleyball team lost to No. 17 Florida 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night, ending its season with a 21-13 record.
The team was the youngest in the tournament, holding 11 underclassman out of 14 players.
The defeat featured a Tiger bright spot, though, as sophomore outside hitter Lisa Henning topped the school record for kills in a single season at 523.
"Obviously, we are disappointed," coach Wayne Kreklow. "I felt like at times we played well but it is just tough for a young group of kids against a team that is that good."
Kreklow was sure to credit the Gators for their play.
"They don't have a lot of weaknesses," he said. "They are big, athletic, and have a lot experience. They made it tough for a group of young kids tonight. I saw glimpses of really good volleyball tonight but our margin for error is just pretty small right now. When we were out of system, we just couldn't force them into any errors; that was the story of the match."
Henning finished the match with 16 kills total, but she wasn’t the only Tiger posting big numbers on the season. Freshman middle blocker Whitney Little once again tallied five blocks on the match, tying with former Tiger All-American Christi Myers for a total of 138 blocks on the season.
Sophomore setter Molly Kreklow lead the Tigers with 17 digs, almost reaching her second 20-20 effort, as she also quarterbacked 32 assists. As a team, the Tigers hit .071. Senior Brittany Brimmage finished her career as a Tiger hitting .271 with eight kills in the match, while classmate libero Pip Armendariz collected 13 digs in her final game.
The Tigers won the first set of the match, despite being out-dug, out-hit and out-served by the Gators, who committed 11 errors. From there, the Gators tallied very little errors and took control of the match.
