Mississippi State
0-1
Southern Illinois
1-0
Volleyball Drops Five-Set Thriller To Salukis Before Record Crowd
August 27, 2011 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Senior outside hitter Caitlin Rance starred on the court and Bulldog fans set a school attendance record, but Mississippi State fell short in a closely-contested season-opening volleyball matchup with Southern Illinois.
The visiting Salukis erased a 2-1 Bulldog lead to top State in a five-set thriller, 25-19, 16-25, 23-25, 25-22, 17-15. The match was witnessed by a school and likely state-record 3,024 fans, who rocked the Newell-Grissom Building on the opening night of the Maroon Classic.
State continues play in the Maroon Classic Saturday taking on Tennessee-Martin (1-0) at 12:30 p.m. and Southeastern Louisiana (0-1) at 7 p.m. The matches are open to the public with no charge for admission at the Newell-Grissom Building.
"We can't say thank you enough to our fans for their support and the tremendous atmosphere they helped create tonight," said Bulldog head coach Jenny Hazelwood, who has coached in five of the top six matches at the Newell-Grissom Building during her three-year tenure at State. "It's disappointing to let this one slip away. We had an amazing performance by Caitlin Rance, and some impressive showings by Chanelle Baker, Lainey Wyman and Hillary Parker. We need to build on those performances and get more consistency in some other areas during these early-season tournaments."
Rance, team co-captain, backed a match-high 22 kills, the second-most of her career, with 11 digs. Rance tied for second in the SEC last fall with 403 kills and raised her career kills total to 717 with her strong senior season-opening performance.
Junior outside hitter Chanelle Banker matched a career-best with 13 kills and with 10 digs notched her first career double-double. Lainey Parker, the lone freshman starter for State, had 11 kills in her Mississippi State debut and finished with a team-best four blocks and a match-best .450 attack percentage.
State held a 72-71 edge in digs, including a career-best 25 by junior Hillary Parker, playing in her first career match as the Bulldogs' libero.
The Bulldogs held a statistical edge in virtually all categories, posted a 61-52 edge in kills, a .216 to .157 advantage in attack percentage, and a 15-10 lead in total team blocks.
But at the service stripe the Bulldogs struggled. Nineteen service errors proved costly in the closely-fought battle with the Salukis, with five of those coming during the deciding fifth set.
Jessica Whitehead had 15 kills and Laura Thole added 14 to go with 13 digs and a team-best three blocks.
Friday night's attendance more than tripled the previous Newell-Grissom Building volleyball attendance record of 932 established during last year's Maroon Classic.
The loss snapped a string of seven straight wins in season-openers for Mississippi State and 12 consecutive successful home-openers.
