Mississippi State
Georgia
Georgia Surges Past Newsome-Led Bulldogs
September 20, 2009 | Volleyball
- Official Statistics
- Official Statistics (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State got off to an impressive start in Sunday's SEC volleyball match with SEC East rival Georgia at the Newell-Grissom Building. MSU claimed a 25-21 opening set win before Georgia (9-3, 1-1 SEC) reeled off wins in the next three sets --- 25-21, 25-21, 25-15 to notch a 3-1 decision. The win gave Georgia a split of its SEC season-opening weekend matches while State (4-9, 0-2 SEC), fell for the second time in as many league matches.
Georgia's comeback spoiled an impressive offensive display by State junior middle blocker Ashley Newsome. Newsome, sidelined by a painful hip pointer midway in the second set of Friday's 3-0 loss to Auburn, matched a career-high with 19 kills, leading State with a .293 hitting percentage and three blocks. The Florence, Ala., product established a career-best with 19 kills Sept. 12 against Northwestern State and now leads State with 160 kills.
"Ashley continues to show amazing determination on the court," said head coach Jenny Hazelwood. "She was in a great deal of pain and could barely walk earlier today. But she came out and got six kills and a couple of blocks in the first set to get us going. We're looking for that same type of determination from all of our players. It's a learning process for this team, which includes quite so many young players."
The Bulldogs used an 8-0 run midway in the opening set to take a 14-8 lead, stretched the advantage to as many as nine before a Georgia service error scored the winning point in State's 25-22 decision in the first set. Newsome had just one attack error and six kills in her first competition following Friday's injury.
Georgia, after committing eight attack errors, had just eight more errors combined over the final three sets. Georgia raced to a 6-1 lead and never trailed in taking the second set 25-21, though Newsome had six more kills and Caitlin Rance was right behind with five.
After the break, the visiting UG Bulldogs bolted to a 10-4 advantage in the third set and turned back a State surge after Ioana Demian nailed a kill that pulled State to within a point 19-18. Erika Clark delivered three key kills down the stretch as Georgia took a 2-1 match lead with a 25-21 decision.
Valentina Gonzalez, who paced Georgia on the afternoon with 18 kills, a sizzling .630 attack percentage, and a match-high seven blocks, ripped five kills and three blocks to spark Georgia to a match-clinching 25-15 win in set four. State led just once, 6-5 on a kill by Demian, but Georgia regained its footing and closed the set and the match with a 9-2 burst.
Behind Newsome's 19 kills, Ioana Demian and Kellye Jordan tallied nine kills each and Caitlin Rance added eight kills with three service aces. Faith Steinwedell, in her second start of the season, had six kills and matched a career-high with a team-leading 16 digs.
Georgia, which held the statistical advantage in kills (62-51), digs (62-59) and total team blocks (10-5), placed four players in double figures in kills, led by Gonzalez' 18 kills. Ann Dylla had 11 and Erika Clark and Briana Bahr tallied 10 each.
The Bulldogs continue SEC competition next weekend with their first league road trip of the campaign. State travels to Gainesville, Fla., to test the fifth-ranked Florida Gators Friday (6 p.m. CT) and then tangles with South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., Sunday (2 p.m. CT) in a match televised regionally on FOX Sports Net South.
