Bulldogs Drop Sunday Contest to Cal Baptist

Sunday, August 26

Starkville

11:00 AM

Mississippi State

1-3

Cal Baptist

4-0

Cal Baptist

Mississippi State

Deja Robinson goes for a kill against Cal Baptist on Sunday

Photo by: Blake Williams/MSU Athletics

Bulldogs Drop Sunday Contest to Cal Baptist

August 26, 2018 | Volleyball

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by Mary Catherine Molay, Graduate Assistant

STARKVILLE- While urgency was present, Mississippi State's lack of communication led to the 3-0 loss in its first-ever match up against Cal Baptist to close out the StarkVegas Classic on Sunday.

The Bulldogs finished 1-3 on the opening weekend of the season, falling to the Lancers by scores of 16-25, 20-25, 19-25.

"This weekend was tough, it was a reality check for all of us," first year head coach, Julie Darty said. "Coming into this weekend we never thought that this was going to be a situation where we get one win at our home tournament. We are going through a lot of growing pains. We are a young group, not in age but we are in young in the meaning that we have not played together very much. New staff, new team, new systems, and I think we are just going to have to take some hard ones and learn some lessons from this experience.

"I have confidence that I can throw anybody in at any given time, but I really wish that I could find some pieces that could get in to a good rhythm and get some comfortability together," Darty said. "I really just want them to feel comfortable and confident out there. Right now, I keep changing things so nobody is really able to get into that good kind of rhythm, so this week we are just going to keep trying and once we find something that we kind of feel good about and feel like it gives us the best shot to win, we will try and ride that out."

MSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead to start the match after a pair of errors by CBU and a kill from Amarrah Cooks. A kills battle ensued as the Lancers pulled ahead to a 14-6 lead. From there, the Bulldogs struggled to catch up, as the team collectively tallied seven kills. Of the seven, Paige Shaw contributed three kills and added a blocking assist. Mississippi State won the battle at the net, collecting the only two blocks of the set.

To start off the second set, CBU continued to apply pressure on the attack, moving out to an early 12-5 lead. MSU went on a six-point burst, getting kills from Cooks, Taylor Haskins and AJ Koele. Kendall Murr also attributed a service ace during the run. Cooks and Haskins both had three kills in the second set.

During the final set of the weekend, kills and errors again told the story. Koele had three kills and one dig, while Haskins added two kills coupled with five digs. Three-straight errors by Cal Baptist helped Mississippi State close the gap, but it was not enough as the Lancers closed out the match in three sets.

For the second week of non-conference play, Mississippi State travels to Boone, North Carolina, for the Appalachian Invitational. MSU will face Clemson at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31 and finish off the tournament playing Davidson at 9 a.m. and host Appalachian State at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 1.

Dawg Bites

Simmons Allen made her first collegiate start recording one dig.
Cooks earned her first ace wearing the maroon and white.
Alleah Stamatis hit .500 on two kills and 12 assists with six digs.
Koele led the team in kills with six.
Cooks led the team in points with 7.5 and with 3.0 blocks.
MSU and CBU tied in total team blocks at 5.0.

For more information on Mississippi State volleyball, follow the Bulldogs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "HailStateVB." You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for "HailStateSnap."