Mississippi State
Arkansas
Strong Blocking Game Powers VBall Bulldogs Past Arkansas, 3-1
November 13, 2009 | Volleyball
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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State's Volleyball Bulldogs threw a Friday the 13th Block Party at the Newell-Grissom Building and finished the evening celebrating their third league win of the year, a 3-1 decision (25-15, 25-14, 21-25, 25-13) over SEC Western Division rival Arkansas. The win gave MSU its third win in its last four home matches with the Razorbacks and a split of the 2009 season series.
The Bulldogs (7-21, 3-14 SEC) continue SEC Western Division play at home Sunday with a a 1:30 p.m.match against instate league rival Ole Miss.
State piled up a season-high 17 total team blocks and got season-best performances at the net by a trio of players. Junior middle blocker Ashley Newsome matched a season-high with nine blocks, Ioana Demian matched her 2009 personal-best of seven blocks, and Faith Steinwedell carded a career-high six assisted blocks.
"We had a great week of practice and tonight played a very disciplined game," said first-year Bulldog head coach Jenny Hazelwood. "That was an impressive blocking performance. We've been pretty solid on the block at time this year, but this was easily our best of the year."
One of the keys to the Bulldogs' success was a well-run offense.
"We executed our offensive game plan pretty well tonight," she added. "We served well and passed well tonight. And Dorey (Gray) did an outstanding job of running the offense and distributing the ball."
Gray tallied 42 assists, her third-highest total of the year, and four Bulldogs reached double figures in kills. Sophomore Caitlin Rance, who piled up a career-best 19 kills in a 3-1 loss at Arkansas last month, paced the Bulldogs with 13 kills on a .400 hitting night. Newsome tallied 11 and both Demian and Kellye Jordan finished with 10 kills apiece.
The Bulldogs dominated play early, never trailing in claiming lopsided 25-15 and 25-14 wins and a 2-0 lead at intermission. Rance had four kills in each of the first two sets to lead the Bulldogs. But the Razorbacks battled back into contention, hitting at a match-best .211 in claiming a 25-21 win in the third set. Jasmine Norton delivered four of her match-leading 15 kills in the stanza.
In the fourth set Kellye Jordan delivered a pair of kills that helped State jump out to a 3-1 lead. And midway in the set, Newsome delivered five blocks to help stymie the Razorback attack and spark State to a match-clinching 25-13 win.
Kayla Woodard delivered 19 digs to pace MSU on defense.
State held the upper hand in all areas of the match, leading in kills (50-39), digs (50-44) and total team blocks (17-5) while forcing 38 Arkansas attack errors, the most by a Mississippi State opponent this year. Thirteen of those errors came in State's 12-point win in the fourth set.
Norton backed her 15-kill effort with 10 digs to reach double-double staus for Arkansas.
The win by the Bulldogs coupled with a 3-0 Alabama win over Ole Miss Friday night in Tuscaloosa enabled MSU to climb past the Rebels (8-18, 2-14 SEC) in the SEC Western Division standings.
