Volleyball Drops 3-1 Decision To Georgia

Friday, November 19

Starkville

7:00 PM

Mississippi State

3-1511-18 / SEC

Georgia

5-1314-16 / SEC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Georgia	25	21	25	29	3
MSTATE	22	25	16	27	1

Volleyball Drops 3-1 Decision To Georgia

November 19, 2010 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Georgia staged some fourth-set dramatics Friday night en route to a 3-1 SEC volleyball victory over Mississippi State at the Newell-Grissom Building. UGA (14-16, 5-13 SEC) rallied to erase an 11-2 deficit and clinched the match 25-22, 21-25, 25-16, 29-27.

Mississippi State (11-18, 3-15 SEC), after claiming a 3-2 win over Georgia earlier this season in Athens, appeared headed for another five-set showdown with the SEC East Bulldogs Friday night. Down 2-1 in the match, State reeled off nine straight points with freshman Iwa Belisario at serve to claim an 11-2 lead in the fourth set and later reached set point with a 24-22 lead. But UGA pulled even at 24-24, fended off three more MSU serves at set point and scored the final three points of the set to clinch the match.

State's Caitlin Rance registered a match-leading 19 kills while Ashley Newsome and Dani McCree followed with 13 and 11 respectively. But Georgia, hitting at a crisp .299 for the night, placed four players in double digits in kills and held advantages in kills (64-56), digs (80-70) and team blocks (11-7) to notch the SEC road win. Kathleen Luft paced Georgia with 16 kills and 15 digs while Valentina Gonzalez registered 13 kills on a dandy .462 hitting night and notched a match-high seven blocks.

MSU freshman Paris Perret earned her eighth double-double with 40 assists and 13 digs.

With a team-best 25 digs, senior libero Kayla Woodard climbed to third among MSU's career leaders in digs and now has 1,385 in four seasons. Ashley Newsome likewise inched closer to a school record. Newsome's five total blocks against Georgia raises her career total to 397, six behind Shauna Owens' school-record mark of 403 total blocks set from 1988 to 1991.

Mississippi State looks to shake an eight-match losing skid in its final home match of the season Sunday. The Bulldogs take on SEC West rival Auburn at 1:30 p.m. in the Newell-Grissom Building. The Tigers (18-12, 9-9 SEC) registered a five-set win at Alabama Friday night.