Missouri State’s Lily Johnson broke the school’s all-time career kills record in the team’s tough five-set loss to Illinois.
Johnson surpassed Michelle Witzke’s mark with her 1,920th kill midway through the third set against Illinois. She ended that match with 27 kills then tacked on another 16 kills in the team’s sweep of Tennessee State. The match against Illinois also set another mark for Johnson, as she reached her 39th career match with at least 20 kills.
In another record that Johnson has achieved, she now holds the Missouri Valley Conference record for the most Player of the Week honors, garnering her 11th this week.
Johnson finished the day with 43 total kills to increase her total to 1,945, which is now just three shy of the Missouri Valley Conference record that was set by Bradley’s Lindsay Stalzer. The team will take on Illinois State to begin their conference slate, where Johnson is expected to exceed Stalzer’s record.
With the preseason wrapping up, Johnson has already put down 226 kills on the year for an average of 4.26 kills per set. The senior started her career off with a strong arm, putting down 495 kills in her freshman season for an average of 3.99 kills per set. In both her sophomore and junior seasons Johnson slammed down more than 600 kills, with 620 during her sophomore campaign and 604 to end her junior season.
With a long road left on the year, Johnson has a good chance of exceeding her kills total from the previous years. The team has 18 guaranteed matches left on the year, Johnson would have to average 21.9 kills per match to square up with her sophomore total and an even 21 for her junior kills total.
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