The Tigers will play one match against each of its SEC opponents next season
Mizzou Volleyball announced its 2025 SEC schedule Tuesday, consisting of 15 matches for one match against each team in the conference.
Mark your calendars, our 2025 SEC schedule, has arrived!! ️ https://t.co/henl41J1Nw#MIZ pic.twitter.com/TcPlJS183N
— Mizzou Volleyball (@MizzouVB) April 10, 2025
The SEC will now have volleyball programs at all 16 teams in the conference after Vanderbilt restored its team following a decades-long hiatus.
Mizzou will face Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and South Carolina at home. The team will face Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt on the road.
The team will only play one conference midweek match this season, with all other contests taking place on Friday or Sunday. This is a slight decrease from the two Wednesday matches last season.
The conference schedule was also shortened by one match from last year, likely to accommodate the return of the SEC Tournament. The conference tournament will be held from Nov. 21 to 25 at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia, and has not taken place since 2005.
The Tigers are coming off a highly successful season, finishing with an 11-5 record in the SEC and the program’s first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2017.
Head coach Dawn Sullivan — who is celebrating a birthday today, April 10 — is returning All-American libero Maya Sands, All-SEC setter Marina Crownover and two more starters in Janet deMarrais and Regan Haith (whose birthday is also today). The team also added impact transfers in All-American outside hitter Caylen Alexander and middle blockers Tyrah Ariail and Trinity Luckett.
Mizzou will likely be ranked inside the top 25 in the preseason poll. The team will likely be joined by several of its SEC opponents, including their first two opponents on the conference slate, Texas and Texas A&M.
The Tigers will face the Aggies Wednesday, Sep. 24 in College Station, followed by a showdown with Texas in Austin that Friday. Mizzou upset the Longhorns, then ranked ninth in the nation, in five sets last November on the road. (editor’s note: it was glorious)
Sullivan’s squad will also face a tough challenge against Florida, who is also coming off a Sweet Sixteen appearance and expected to be a top-25 team, in Gainesville Friday, Oct. 10.
The team’s final possible top-25 matchup on the road will take place against Tennessee later in the season on Halloween. Mizzou will face also Vanderbilt for the first time in program history that Sunday in Nashville.
Luckily for the Tigers, their probable toughest test of the conference schedule will take place at home.
Mizzou will face Kentucky, a likely top-5 preseason team and national title contender, Friday, Nov. 7 in the season’s home finale.
The Tigers will also have an easier back half of the schedule after facing three likely top-25 teams in their first five matches of conference play, something that could allow them to build up steam heading into a major matchup at the Hearnes Center.
Kentucky has been Mizzou’s kryptonite for a full decade now, winning 14 consecutive matches against the Tigers in a streak dating back to the Kreklow era. The schedule sets Dawn Sullivan and her team up to have the opportunity to break that streak in a match that could have major implications for postseason seeding in front of a major crowd at Hearnes.
Tune in to this week’s Majority Rules podcast for a further breakdown of all the news.