The Wait Is Over
November 29, 2021 | Volleyball, Joel Coleman
The Bulldogs all bought in and finally pushed Mississippi State into the NCAA Tournament.
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State volleyball's coaches, players and staff sat around the big-screen television inside MSU's football recruiting lounge at Davis Wade Stadium on Sunday night, anxiously awaiting. The program was virtually assured of its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth, but as the hour-long selection show rolled on, there was no mention of the Bulldogs.
It was only fitting. Mississippi State has been playing volleyball since 1975. The Bulldogs had essentially been longing for this moment for 46 years. What were another few minutes?
Finally, with about 15 minutes left in the program, there was no more talk of, 'Should be'. There was only, 'Is', as in, Mississippi State is in the NCAA Tournament. And oh, how sweet it is.
"My heart was racing the entire time during the show," State's head coach and the Southeastern Conference's Coach of the Year Julie Darty Dennis said. "To see our name up there and to hear it called, it's pure joy. It's about the hard work paying off. It's the dedication. It's being committed to something bigger than ourselves and that's this team. I'm just overjoyed."
This is a bunch that set its goal back in April to have this moment. They never, not for one second, shied away from it.
From the outside looking in prior to the season, Mississippi State was a program with an upward trajectory for sure. But NCAA Tournament? Wasn't that a bit ambitious? Nope. Not for this group.
"We knew where we wanted to go and what our goal was and we were all onboard with that," middle blocker Deja Robinson said.
Adds All-SEC performer Gabby Waden: "I just believed in our abilities. We just all bought in and were all ready to work for each other and make ourselves better for each other."
Bought in. That's perhaps the phrase that best describes this group. And it started about four years ago with their leader.
Dennis was coming off her best season as the head coach at Jacksonville in 2017. The Dolphins were on the upswing. Then Mississippi State came calling, looking to Dennis to fill its head coaching vacancy.
Many advised Dennis against taking the job. They said coaching volleyball at MSU was too much of an uphill climb. Dennis ignored the warnings. Instead, she bought in, unafraid and undeterred.
"I think I was willing to fail and understand that it's going to be a long, bumpy road, but my failure early on wasn't going to be final unless we let it," Dennis said. "We were shooting for the stars early with some recruits and we were getting told, 'No' a lot, but eventually we knew someone was going to say, 'Yes' and someone was going to make a risky decision like I did to come here and that was our kid. I think I took this job knowing I'm going to pour every ounce of my being into this job and if it doesn't work, I can go to sleep knowing I tried and I did my best. But since it is working, it's pretty cool to kind of look back and understand, I came in with a chip on my shoulder and something to prove and these kids did the same thing. I think their recruiting stories were very similar to mine. I think they just want to prove people wrong and we're still just trying to prove that Mississippi State volleyball is the real deal."
Sunday night solidified it. The Bulldogs are indeed the real deal. This is no longer a program with potential. It's a program that has arrived.
Now this didn't just all appear from nowhere. There were signs. The drumbeat of success started to get louder a year ago during the unusual two-part season forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think we felt it last year when we went on the road and we beat Texas A&M twice at their place," Dennis said. "Then in the spring, when we swept Ole Miss and split with Georgia, I think we could start to feel that everything we were putting into place was really starting to click for the kids."
This season, the hoofbeats in the distance became a stampede. The Bulldogs earned their first national ranking in school history (they're currently No. 23). They finished in second place in the SEC and had a chance to earn the league crown headed into the year's final weekend of the regular season.
State is still riding a 13-match winning streak. It's the league's longest active streak and the sixth-longest in the nation. Now, the Bulldogs will try to make it 14 straight, and that match will happen in the NCAA Tourney. MSU's first-round contest happens Friday against Hawaii at Washington's Alaska Airlines Arena.
Whatever happens during State's postseason run, no one will ever forget these 2021 Bulldogs. They bought in. They ended the wait. And if they have it their way, the fun in this program has only just begun.
"Finally seeing the fruits of our labor is definitely exciting," Waden said. "I think we've set an example for what we hope keeps happening. This isn't a one-time thing. It's something we want to continue, and we want to leave an impact on the program."
