Mississippi State
11-11 (3-8SEC)
Ole Miss
15-5 (9-2SEC)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ole Miss | 17 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| MSTATE | 25 | 19 | 23 | 20 | 1 |
Dogs Drop Homecoming Match To Rebs
October 22, 2010 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Caitlin Rance and Ashley Newsome combined for 32 kills of Mississippi State's 50 kills Friday night but the Bulldogs came up on the short end of a 3-1 score in a spirited SEC volleyball match against instate rival Ole Miss at the Newell-Grissom Building.
State (11-11, 3-8 SEC) claimed a 25-17 win in the opening set and before Ole Miss (15-5. 9-2 SEC) stormed back to take the next three sets 25-19, 25-23, 25-20 and claim a sweep of this year's two-match series. UM bested the Bulldogs in straight-sets in Oxford on opening weekend for SEC competition last month.
A Mississippi State single-match record crowd of 813 watched the Homecoming weekend Bulldog-Rebel battle.
"We struggled with our serve-receive passing and never could get things going our way after that," said second-year MSU head coach Jenny Hazelwood. "Our fans and the atmosphere they helped create tonight were incredible. It was by far the largest crowd for a volleyball match at Newell-Grissom. This is another part of our building process, developing a strong home court advantage. I just wish we had been able to maintain our early-match momentum and reward our fans with a win on Homecoming weekend."
The Bulldogs were most impressive in the opening set, leading from start to finish and hitting at a match-best .300 clip. Ashley Newsome sparked State with five kills and Chanelle Baker added four as MSU sprinted to an early lead in the match. Whitney Craven helped Ole Miss pull even with a 25-19 decision in the second set, tallying six of her team-leading 15 kills in the stanza. After registering but one kill in the opening set, State's Caitlin Rance kept the Bulldogs in the fray with five of her match-high 17 kills.
The match seemed to turn in Ole Miss' favor in the third set. Mississippi State jumped out to an 8-2 lead, built up 10-4 and 12-6 advantages and, with a kill by Rance, led UM 21-18. But UM scored the next four points to take their first lead of the set at 22-21 and out-pointed the Bulldogs down the stretch for a 25-23 win. Rance again paced the Dogs in the stanza with a six-kill showing.
Ole Miss wasted little time putting the match away, taking a 3-0 lead on a pair of Bulldog attack errors and an ace by Craven, and building the lead out to 11 points at 20-9 before closing the night with a 25-20 win.
UM held a slim 53-50 edge in kills and a 75-66 advantage in digs, while the Bulldogs' strong play showed up in a 9-6 State advantage in total team blocks. Caitlin Rance backed her 17-kill performance with a team-best 17 digs for her eighth double-double of the year. Senior libero Kayla Woodard tallied 15 digs and climbed past Jennifer Shupe (1996-1999) to fourth on MSU's career digs list with 1,275. With a team-leading six blocks, middle blocker Ashley Newsome climbed to third in MSU's career total blocks listing with 369.
The Bulldogs hit the road for their next two matches, taking on SEC West co-leader LSU Friday (Oct. 29) in Baton Rouge and divisional rival Arkansas Sunday (Oct. 31) in Fayetteville.
