MSU Falls to North Texas in Five

Thursday, September 13

Denton, Texas

7:00 PM

Mississippi State

4-7

North Texas

4-8

Mississippi State

North Texas

MSU falls to North Texas in five on Thursday to open the North Texas Challenge.

Photo by: Blake Williams/MSU Athletics

MSU Falls to North Texas in Five

September 13, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)

by Mary Catherine Molay, Graduate Assistant

DENTON, Texas - Battling against the tough atmosphere in North Texas Volleyball Center, Mississippi State fell in a five set heart-breaker.

North Texas defeated the Bulldogs 25-23, 25-20, 15-25, 21-25, 15-5.

"What a battle tonight was," head coach Julie Darty said. "To go down 0-2 and fight back to force a fifth set I am proud of the grit and composure we showed. We are still so spotty as a team, we make these great, spectacular plays but just cannot convert all the time and we continue to talk about being a consistent team who knows who we are and plays that way day in and day out. I am proud of this group for pushing it to a fifth set tonight, but the volleyball we played during the third and fourth set is not how we played in the fifth set.

"We are going to put the pieces together and get there," Darty said. "I thought Paige did a great job coming off the bench, I thought our middles were consistent and efficient like always. I just wish we could have gotten Amarrah more balls. I think we are so uncomfortable in those tough situations and we have to get comfortable during those times. We will grow, we will learn from this. This team is bought in and commit to the process. We understand that we have a long way to go but if we take it one step at a time, that is what we have to do."

To start the match, Mississippi State struggled to stop North Texas' attack and found itself at a 6-0 deficit. MSU tightened the North Texas lead, 12-8, on back-to-back service aces by Kanani Price to tighten North Texas' lead to 12-8. The aces helped to rally the troops to tie the match at 13, which forced a timeout from the Mean Green. From there, both teams benefitted from errors to push ahead. At set point for North Texas, MSU countered with three-straight points, which made the score 24-23. Despite the valiant effort, the Mean Green took the set on a kill. Deja Robinson led the team with six kills and a .625 hitting percentage. MSU had three service aces in comparison to North Texas' one.

Sets one and two were similar in nature, as four errors and an ace put North Texas ahead, 7-2. Mississippi State benefited from its own attack game to get back into the match, but the errors were the Bulldogs downfall. After another gritty comeback, North Texas claimed the set. Khristian Carr had four kills and a .571 hitting percentage, Robinson also contributed four kills, a service ace and two blocks. Paige Shaw added two blocks.

Mississippi State took advantage of errors by North Texas to take the early 10-5 lead. MSU went on to cruise through the set as North Texas had 10 attacking errors and three service errors. The Bulldogs went on to take the set and move on to set four. Once again, Robinson led the team with four kills and a .800 hitting percentage. Kendall Murr had six digs. MSU led with 2.0 total blocks while UNT didn't register a block.

The Bulldogs faced a 4-1 deficit to start the fourth set, before they stepped up the defense and forced North Texas into a bevy of errors, eventually tying the set at nine. From there, it was a battle at the net. Each team had opportunities to push ahead, but errors held each back from taking a substantial lead as two points were the largest cushion. It was not until three straight kills for MSU forced an UNT timeout. Mississippi State kept its focus and was able to win and force set five. Amarrah Cooks and Shaw had four kills apiece. Morgan Kath handed out 14 assists and Alleah Stamatis had four digs.

MSU struggled to find its footing in the fifth set. North Texas took advantage of a strong attack game combined with MSU errors to take the match.

The Bulldogs play once tomorrow (Sept. 14) at 3 p.m. against No. 14 Cal Poly Mustangs. This will be the first ever meeting between the two squads. MSU closes out the weekend against Stephen F. Austin a 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15, which marks the sixth meeting.

Mississippi State vs. Cal Poly - Friday, Sept. 14 at 3 p.m.

Live Stats: https://hailst.at/2x23YPZ

Mississippi State vs. Stephen F. Austin - Saturday, Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m.

Live Stats: https://hailst.at/2x23YPZ

Dawg Bites from Thursday

Robinson had 14 kills, two service aces, six digs and four blocks
Cooks, AJ Koele, Taylor Haskins, and Carr each contributed six kills
Shaw had eight kills and three blocks
Kath had 41 assists
Cooks hit .333 and Carr had a .308 hitting percentage
Murr led the team with 13 digs, while Haskins (11) and Stamatis (10) both had double-digit digs
Haskins, Price, Robinson and Stamatis all boasted two service aces

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."