Mississippi State
7-24, 2-14SEC
Kentucky
24-5, 13-3SEC
MSU Volleyball Falls To No. 15 Kentucky At Home
November 23, 2014 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Returning home after a Friday on the road at Georgia, the Mississippi State volleyball Bulldogs (7-24, 2-14 SEC) dropped a three-set contest to the 15th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats (24-5, 13-3 SEC) on Sunday afternoon at the Newell-Grissom Building.
Sunday marked the first of the final two home contests for the Bulldogs for the 2014 campaign. MSU closes out play at Newell-Grissom on Wednesday, Nov. 23, when it hosts Texas A&M at 7 p.m. CT.
Kentucky started off the match strong, going on a 10-1 run to go up 14-4 midway through the set. UK would only allow six more points from the Bulldogs, going on to take the opening frame, 25-10.
The second set was close to start, as both sides traded blows to start off tied 4-4. The Wildcats used a 6-0 run to break the tie and go up 10-4. MSU would pull as close as four several times, but could not close the gap anymore. UK used a late 7-1 run to seal the set, taking it 25-15 and going up 2-0 in the match.
Despite being down a pair of sets, the Maroon and White would not show any quit. It was a back-and-forth affair for the full set, with UK only grabbing a lead as high as three. Down 21-18, State called for timeout, regrouped and used kills from Chelsea Duhs and Bali Leffall-Young and an ace from Payton Harris to draw even at 21-21. The Wildcats would call timeout themselves and fire back, going on a 4-1 run to close out the match, taking the set, 25-22, and the match, 3-0.
MSU was led by eight kills from Duhs, while Warren followed behind with six. Shelby Anderton put together 21 assists for the match, her sixth-straight match with 20-plus assists.
Defensively, Harris paced State with 14 digs on the day. Four different Bulldogs turned in a block, rounding out the MSU defensive efforts.
Anni Thomasson paced Kentucky with 10 kills, while Morgan Bergren tallied a match-high 37 assists.
For more information and updates on Mississippi State volleyball, fans can follow the Bulldogs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at HailStateVB.
