Volleyball Drops Five-Setter at Houston

Friday, September 3

Houston, Texas

6:30 PM

Mississippi State

4-1,0-0SEC

Houston

4-0,0-0AAC

Mississippi St.

Houston

Photo by: Maria Lysaker

Volleyball Drops Five-Setter at Houston

September 03, 2021 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

by Matt Dunaway, Associate Director/Communications

HOUSTON, Texas – Mississippi State's volleyball team battled back to erase 1-0 and 2-1 deficits, but Houston emerged with a 3-2 tightly-contested decision [15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 13-15] in a matchup of undefeated teams to close Friday's action at the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup inside the Fertitta Center.

The Bulldogs (4-1) raced out to a 12-7 advantage during the fifth set. Mississippi State built its momentum on the strength of three blocks, two involving Deja Robinson. The Bulldogs also benefited from a pair of kills courtesy of Sania Petties and Shania Cromartie.

However, Houston (4-0) pieced together eight of the final nine points down the stretch to snatch the deciding frame by a 15-13 margin.

"I think our kids played their tails off tonight and worked super hard after that first set," head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. "I don't know if it was a reality check or wakeup call, but the response we had after that first set was incredible. Our middles were fantastic tonight. We were trying to get Deja and Sania as many balls as we could. They were working their tails off. The setters were trying to find them as much as they could."

"I thought our defense was good," Dennis continued. "We were working on our relentless pursuit in trying to keep balls off the floor. It was a scrappy, fun match. I feel these kids battled hard tonight. We came here to be tested. That's exactly what happened, we were tested and pushed. It was really fun to watch our team start to kind of grow up. This was a pivotal moment for us to grow up and learn a little bit about ourselves."

Mississippi State's setters, Margaret Dean and Gabby Coulter, paired up for a strong all-around effort of 53 assists and 18 digs. Dean's 28 helpers enabled her to surpass 1,000 career assists and was the third-best single match output of her career. Coulter tucked away her second double-double of the young season with 25 assists and 12 digs.

The Bulldogs had five players dial up 10-plus kills. Gabby Waden popped a team-leading 14 kills, added four blocks and tallied three digs.

State's middles of Robinson and Petties combined for 21 kills on 43 swings for a .395 hitting ration. Robinson skied her way to nearly a double-double with 11 kills and eight blocks, whereas Petties managed 10 kills and three digs.

Cromartie and Lauren Myrick grinded their way to double-doubles. For Cromartie, she banged home a career-high 13 kills and tucked away with 11 digs. Myrick laced 12 kills and headlined the back row with a career-best 17 digs. She also grinded her way to a solid 96.1 percent rate on 51 reception attempts.

Seeing her first action of the season, Francesca McBride recorded two kills and two digs in her two sets of action.

Lilly Gunter wore the libero jersey en route to 11 digs and five assists. She has collected 10-plus digs in four of five matches and 12 of her last 15 outings dating back to last season.

As a team, Mississippi State managed 67 kills on a .204 hitting percentage. The Bulldogs also totaled 75 digs, nine blocks and six aces.

Houston won sets one and sets three by a 25-15 and 25-23 margin, respectively, to take 1-0 and 2-1 advantages. The Cougars came out in rhythm with a .450 hitting percentage and converted on 15 of their 16 sideout attempts in the opening stanza.

Mississippi State didn't back down to take the second and fourth stanzas.

All square at 14-14 in set two, Cromartie fired in three kills along with a Waden kill to stake the Bulldogs to an 18-14 edge. State kept the Cougars at arms-length, and Cromartie brought the Maroon and White to set point at 24-20. It was a Jessica Kemp kill which salted away the frame to State, 25-22.

Facing a 17-15 hole during the fourth set, Myrick and Waden knocked home kills to draw the Bulldogs even at 17-17. Then, State took advantage of a Houston hitting error, coupled with Robinson-Waden block and a Waden kill to surge ahead by a 20-17 score line. The Cougars answered with four of the next five points to tie up the scoreboard at 21-21. State used a strong finishing kick with kills from Waden, Petties and Cromartie along with a UH attack error to claim a 25-21 victory.

"It's the second weekend right now, and it's still so early in our season," Dennis continued. "We're definitely looking to turn the page quickly and need to be ready to come out with a win tomorrow. We want to come out of Houston 2-1 and get back to work in Starkville on a positive note. Again, I can't say enough about our team tonight. I thought they were composed, mature and resilient in their first true road match tonight. They were tough and fun to coach."

Mississippi State tangles with Louisiana-Monroe to conclude the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup on Saturday. First serve is set for 2 p.m. CT from the Fertitta Center on the University of Houston campus.

"I think our team will focus in on having a better start tomorrow," Dennis said. "We really have to set the tone early and playing good clean volleyball. We need to manage our risks a little bit better as attackers. We gave Houston a lot of points with our errors especially in that first set. Managing our errors better is something that we are going to be lock in about for tomorrow."

The Bulldogs are in the midst of back-to-back road weekends. State return home to the friendly confines of the Newell-Grissom Building to wrap up their non-conference slate with Syracuse, South Alabama and Jackson State from September 17-19 at the Hail State Invitational.

Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the volleyball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateVB' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.