Mississippi State
6-6, 1-2
Arkansas
10-4, 2-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi State | 14 | 16 | 19 | 0 |
| Arkansas | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
State Volleyball Falls At Arkansas
September 24, 2011 | Volleyball
The Razorbacks (10-4, 2-1 SEC), playing at home for the first time since August 30, raced to 25-14 and 25-16 wins in the opening sets and erased 12-6 and 15-10 deficits to nail down the match with a 25-19 win in the third frame.
MSU (6-6, 1-2 SEC), which continues its SEC weekend road run Sunday at LSU (1:30 p.m.), committed 17 attack errors and was held to a season-low .097 attack percentage. Senior outside hitter Caitlin Rance led State with nine kills, snapping a two-season streak of 18 straight double figure performances in kills. She also paced the Bulldog defense with eight digs.
"I was very disappointed in our play tonight," said coach Jenny Hazelwood. "We were sluggish and didn't execute the game plan we had put together for a very athletic Arkansas team."
Arkansas, which out-hit State .385 to .097, built up a 7-3 lead in total team blocking and held a 58-38 bulge in digs.
Freshman middle blocker Lainey Wyman had seven kills and junior outside hitter Chanelle Baker added five for State. Wyman tallied the first kill of the match, but Arkansas scored 10 of the next 11 points for a 10-2 lead en route to a quick 25-14 win. Stipanovich drilled five of her kills in that opening frame.
Back-to-back kills by Rance staked the Bulldogs to an early 4-3 lead in the second set and another kill by the State senior co-captain knotted the score at 5-5. Jasmine Norton then delivered the next three kills to lift the Razorbacks to an 11-7 edge. Stipanovich stepped up with seven kills in the frame to give hit-hitting Arkansas a 25-16 win and a 2-0 lead in the match. The Hogs hit a match-best .481 in winning the second set.
MSU got back on track in the third set, with Rance delivering five of the team's 11 kills and helping MSU build up a 12-6 advantage. But Arkansas battled back to tie the score at 16-16, took its first lead at 19-18 on a kill by Norton, and closed the match with a 6-1 run to nail down the straight-sets win.
Rance raised her team-leading kills total to 200 while Wyman, who opened the weekend with an SEC-leading 48 total blocks, added two blocks against Arkansas.
