Earlier this month I sat down with fellow Rock M volleyball enthusiasts Colin Simmons and Matthew Gustafson along with KCOU Service to Seven host Jeffrey Calhoun to discuss the 2025 Mizzou volleyball season. The team fell just short of the NCAA Tournament due to several key losses in the final month of the season. With the transfer portal in full swing and a Dawn Sullivan extension announced, there was much to discuss. This was originally produced in podcast form, but has been transcribed and abbreviated for the main site:

What felt different about this year’s Dawn Sullivan-led team?

Jeffrey Calhoun: I mean there were a lot of things that just didn’t feel like they were in full swing. It felt like most of the season the team was just running at about 80% speed. Janet deMarrais was injured all throughout the year. Tyrah Arial, obviously playing with a brace the entire year. Regan Haith going in and out with a lot of injuries. Sickness plagued the locker room a few times. So at some points you did see that.

But at the other end of things, some of the the the life, the electricity, the swagger that this team has had in the past with the likes of Colleen Finney, with Jordan Iliff, with Michael Vernon, while they were replaced and reloaded. From a purely positional standpoint it didn’t feel at times they were the same. You look at some of these games, it felt like at times [they] went a little bit one dimensional. Last year with that 1-2 punch of Finney and Haith, you saw the middles run the offense quite a bit. Obviously, you have one of the best opposite hitters in the conference, with Jordan Iliff. But this year, it just didn’t feel like it was there. It took some time to figure out who that opposite hitter was going to be. About halfway through the year it ended up being sealed as Maca Lobaglio, which I think is the right pick. But anytime you have a true freshman come into a role like that, it’s difficult. It didn’t feel like the the middles were utilized as much. You boil it down to skill level, I think it was pretty even, and the offense just wasn’t run through them. It felt like it was just a simple run through Calen Alexander most of the time. And when it worked, it worked, but when it didn’t, it didn’t. Teams were able to read that really, really well. They got read 11 times, and that’s why they missed the tournament.

Matthew Gustafson: This was a team that fell far short of its potential. You look at the talent they had entering this year, this was arguably the most talented team and the deepest team of the Dawn Sullivan era. You look at it, you were returning Maya Sands who I believe is going to win national Libero of the year (she did not, which was somewhat of a surprise). You return an All-SEC setter in Marina Crownover. You brought in Tyrah Arial from USC. You brought in an honorable mention All-American, and last year’s national leader and kills, Caylen Alexander. The talent was absolutely there, but you didn’t see it enough. You didn’t see it very often put together on the floor for Mizzou. Obviously, you had those several upsets that were just killer for their tournament hopes down the stretch. I think that overall the SEC was probably undervalued by the committee this year, given that it had two teams in the Final Four, had three teams in the Elite Eight, considering that the SEC had only five teams in the entire NCAA Tournament. So I think that the conference’s strength was undervalued, and other conferences may be a little bit overvalued. That being said, the number of bad losses the team had made it a very, difficult task to get into the NCAA tournament. And again, it was a matter of not living up to that team’s potential too many times in order to make it.

With the departures of assistant coaches Jhenna Gabriel and Cullen Irons and Marina Crownover in the transfer portal, what should we expect heading into 2026?

JC: I think my biggest question is, who is going to step up as that lead vocal leader? Because at the beginning of the Dawn Sullivan era it very much felt like Jordan Iliff was that number one option. And then last year, you really saw Colleen Finney coming to her own. Then last year really was Maya sands and Janet deMarrais. Matthew, Aaron [Segal] and I talked about this on Service to Seven five minutes before Marina Crownover announced her transferring. It felt like the only one of those kind of leader core players left was Crownover, and now she’s gone.

You look at you look at who is currently listed on the roster. The only seniors are Kimani Johnson and Kaylen Rush. Neither of those players have gotten a lot of substantial playing time. Sierra Dudley is a redshirt junior but as fantastic of a leader as she has been…she hasn’t played in a year and a half. Even if they bring in a serious leader in the portal, becoming the voice of that locker room in year one with a team is incredibly difficult, and you don’t see that all that all that often in any sport. This team right now from a number standpoint is small. You graduate five seniors, you got four players hop in the portal. There’s four new players and so now you’re at 14 players, and there’s a lot of holes that need to be filled. Dawn Sullivan has done fantastic things on the portal, so I can almost guarantee that there’s going to be more players. You’re gonna need more than two substantial transfers to really help this team next year.

MG: You have multiple areas that you’re going to need to take from the transfer portal. I think that you’re likely good at setter. Obviously Crownover is a big loss, she was one of the best setters in the SEC. That being said, you brought in a player last year with international experience, Nina Mandovic, who got playing time this year. You also have Sierra Dudley, who, though she hasn’t started the last two years with a starter on a tournament team back in 2023 and was part of the SEC All-Freshman team. So I would be a little bit surprised to see them bring in a setter, especially considering that you’re adding one in the incoming freshman class.

What you’re going to need is at least one middle because you have your two starters graduating, Trinity Luckett, who I think a lot of us expected to take that next step into that starting role next year, is also transferring out. So the majority of your middles right now are either sophomores or juniors who have not had much playing time at the position. Kamani Johnson is an option, though she’s mainly played right side during her collegiate career, and you have two true freshmen middle blockers who are going to come in. You don’t have anybody who you know for sure can start at an SEC level. [On the] right side you’re good. You have Maca Lobaglio returning. You’re going to need at least one hitter. There are a lot of talented hitters on this team, but they’re also very young, very inexperienced, and haven’t had success in the SEC yet. I think that if you’re looking to get back to the NCAA tournament, you probably don’t want to have more than one hitter spot filled by somebody who has not had starting experience.

Who do you think is someone from the 2025 roster that can take that next step and jump into a bigger role?

JC: I’m really excited to see Sierra Dudley this year. I think that we’re going to see a much bigger role from her, because, you know, Dawn Sullivan herself admitted in a number of interviews that the reason that she would bring in Mandovic was to slow down the pace of the game, which was necessary at certain points. I think that while Sierra Dudley and Marina Crownover play very different, I think that they are used for similar situations. I think that Sierra Dudley helps with that faster pace. I think that Sierra Dudley will be slotted into where Marina Crownover was these last couple years, and we know how good Sierra Dudley has been. She’s fantastic, and I really think she’ll jump back in.

I’m really excited to see what Kaylen Rush does. I honestly think Kaylen Rush is a dog. She’s the daughter of Kareem Rush. Genetics already proves how talented she is. The problem, and this is a good problem to have of Missouri fans, is that libero room has been absolutely loaded. I mean, you had Maya sands, walked into the conference and steal pretty much every award she could. So that’s just pushed Kalen Rush further down the depths chart, but she came in at a few points this year and played solid. I think that Rush is really going to step up.

MG: Jeffrey touched on it with Sierra Dudley. She is an SEC starting level setter, we’ve seen that before. She was a starting level setter as a freshman, and so you would have to imagine with multiple years of development, that she has only improved since that point.

I’m going to point out two different people, hitters who impressed me, who stood out to me, for their arms. They have cannons for arms at the outside and right side hitter positions respectively. Maca Lobaglio obviously already locked down that starting role this year at right side. Somebody who came in with international experience from Argentina, played on the national team there, and really her main asset this year was defense. I think that she added a lot to the teams blocking up front and was relatively efficient on offense. Is the year went on, but didn’t really have a soaring role. I’d expect to see her role in the offense increase next year, and on the other side, you saw more of Paige Felder this year with the players currently on the roster. I would be pretty surprised if Paige Felder is not a starter for that team next season.

What do you think is the expectation, both inside and outside the team for Mizzou heading into this this 2026 season?

JC: That’s really hard to answer in my opinion, because I think there’s a lot of unanswered questions. It’s still going to be nearly a year before that season starts, but there’s a lot of variety in the needs and the holes for this team. For me, it’s about the same as it ended this year. I think that next year, this team is going to be a bubble team, I hate to say it, especially with how high expectations were for this team. If I’m going to be honest, I think that this is a team that come Selection Sunday next year, they’re going to be holding their breath.

MG: This is likely to be a transition year. I think that we haven’t really seen under Dawn Sullivan the transition from a lot of coaches from the first couple years, where you have a lot of transfers starting to your homegrown talent, the players that you brought in as recruits forming the core of your roster. So next year you’re likely to see at least three sophomores starting for this team. And with that there come more question marks, because you’re not going to have as many players who have SEC starting experience. I think that you don’t want to take a step back from this year. Ideally, you take a step forward if you’re the program. But really the key for next year is going to be making that transition where you have the core of your roster, your best players be players that you brought in during high school, recruiting and so individual development, developing those homegrown players is going to be the most important thing this offseason and next year for Mizzou.

While he was unable to join us for the podcast, Colin graciously sent in a video to share his thoughts on the season and what is next for Mizzou volleyball, which has been added here:

Colin Simmons: Obviously, this season didn’t meet expectations, but I wouldn’t call it a failure. The reality is that this team didn’t have the same offensive firepower as it did compared to last season. It’s really hard to compare this, to not compare this team and the players to last season squad, because we saw how they were able to make a deep run. Caitlin Alexander was a perfect replacement for Michael Vernon’s production, but there wasn’t an adequate replacement for Jordan Iliff, and that proved to be the difference.

Once again Sullivan and the coaching staff will have to replace that outside hitting production, most likely by hitting the portal or relying on internal development. I think rising sophomores like Paige Felder and Maca Lobaglio should come back even stronger next season, but you’re definitely going to need to have a couple of big time commitments in the portal for this team to reach where it wants to be, back in the tournament, and I think even somewhere like rising junior Claire Morrissey could play a factor. This will be the biggest test of Sullivan’s tenure with Mizzou. She’s trying to replace so much roster talent, and has to replace talent and her coaching staff as well, and so it’s clearly going to be an uphill battle, but gaining a few big time names in the portal and having that young depth step up could put this team back on the map in 2026.

You can follow all the news surrounding Mizzou volleyball on Rock M Nation. We will be posting a transfer tracker within the next week, keep an eye out for all the updated news.