Mississippi State
3-48-8 / SEC
Georgia
4-48-10 / SEC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 24 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Mississippi State | 26 | 19 | 15 | 18 | 1 |
Georgia Spoils Start Of MSU Volleyball Home Stand, 3-1
October 07, 2011 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Senior outside hitter Caitlin Rance registered her sixth 20-kill performance of the season Friday night but it was not enough to overcome a hot-hitting Georgia team that claimed a 3-1 SEC volleyball road win over Mississippi State (8-8/3-4 SEC) at the Newell-Grissom Building.
Rance tallied a match-leading 20 kills, nine of those coming in a 26-24 MSU win in the opening set. But Georgia (8-10/4-4 SEC), hitting .336 for the night, roared back to take the next three sets 25-19, 25-15, 25-18 and stymie MSU's bid for a school record-matching third consecutive SEC win.
State bolted to a 6-2 lead to open the match and held a 21-16 advantage in the late stages of the opening set before Georgia went on a late e 8-2 run to forge a 24-23 advantage. Lainey Wyman delivered a kill that knotted the score and with a service ace put State on top 25-24. That set the stage for a set-clinching kill by Rance.
UGA used a 6-2 spree to overcome an early 5-2 MSU lead in the second stanza and cruised on to a match-evening 25-19 win. State led only briefly in the early going of a 25-15 loss in the third set as Brittany Northcutt and Ann Dylla delivered four kills each to match State's entire kill production in the third stanza.
Georgia pulled away from a close early battle in the fourth set and warmed up the evening with .419 hitting as Dylla and Kathleen Luft combined for 11 kills in a match-clinching 25-18 Georgia win.
Dylla and Northcutt tallied 15 kills and four blocks each to pace Georgia, which also got 14 kills from Luft and 10 more from Elizabeth Reid.
On a .244 hitting night, Rance finished with 20 kills, her eighth career performance of 20 kills or better. The Kingwood, Texas, product, playing in her 100th career match, raised her team-leading season kills total to 254 and her career mark to 949 kills. Rance, who notched her 100th career block in the match, narrowly missed double-double status, finishing the night with eight digs.
Junior Faith Steinwedell was next for State with nine kills and 10 digs, while freshman Lainey Wyman chipped in eight kills and three blocks
Junior libero Hillary Parker paced the MSU defense with 13 digs. Georgia's Allison Summers took match honors on defense with 16 digs.
Georgia was dominant at the net, amassing an 11-5 edge in total team blocking. Reid and Briana carded a match-leading five knock-downs each.
Mississippi State continues its weekend schedule Sunday with a regionally-televised 1 p.m. match against SEC West rival Auburn. The match will be broadcast by Cox Sports Television with Todd Kalas and Maria Taylor describing the action. It's the second of a school-record four TV appearances this fall for the Volleyball Bulldogs, who topped Ole Miss on ESPNU last Sunday in a five-set marathon played in Oxford.
The Bulldogs' four-match SEC home stand resumes next weekend with a Friday night Humphrey Coliseum battle with the Kentucky Wildcats. The MSU-UK match begins at 7 p.m. and helps launch "Maroon Madness" events celebrating the start of basketball practice. State returns to the Newell-Grissom Building Sunday (Oct. 16) for a 1:30 p.m. match against No. 19 Tennessee.
