Embracing Expectations
August 25, 2022 | Volleyball, Joel Coleman
Mississippi State volleyball enters a new season ready to build on last year’s success.
STARKVILLE – There are two ways to handle expectations. You can run from them, and risk being crushed under their weight as you let them go. Or you can do what Mississippi State volleyball plans to do in 2022. You can embrace them and let them drive you forward.
The Bulldogs begin their new season on Friday afternoon with a 3:30 p.m. match against Milwaukee in South Bend, Indiana, and with the new campaign, there's no question there comes with it some level of pressure. There's no hiding it. There's no getting away from it. So, MSU simply plans to accept it.
"Pressure is a privilege for sure," head coach Julie Darty Dennis said.
It certainly is, for pressure to succeed means there is likely much reason for optimism. And when you think back to what this bunch did a year ago, how could there not be excitement for this season's possibilities?
State is fresh off of the magic of the best season in program history. Mississippi State illustrated it is a program on the rise as the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament and went into the final weekend of the regular season with a chance to finish atop the Southeastern Conference standings. The Bulldogs eventually finished second and Dennis earned the SEC's Coach of the Year award.
Now, the question is what can these Dawgs do for an encore? Dennis insists it starts with thriving on the expectations around the program and using them as fuel, while at the same time craving even more of them.
"We've put ourselves in a position where we're going into matches now and people are saying, 'Mississippi State is supposed to win this match,' and we've never felt that before," Dennis said. "We've always had that underdog mentality where we try to prove people wrong. I think we saw we're earning respect with our preseason coaches' poll [where we were predicted to finish fifth in the SEC]. I believe fifth place is the highest [predicted finish] in school history. For us, that was cool, but it was still reflective of how we still have a lot to prove for us to be an SEC Champion caliber team and for people to respect us and vote us at the top of the poll. We finished second in the league last year and graduated essentially one starter and we got chosen fifth under teams that we swept. So, we still have work to do. We still have opinions to change."
There's certainly no opinion-changing that can happen by dwelling in the past, so Dennis and the Bulldogs press forward. It's actually all a bit ironic.
The past is both a blessing and a potential stumbling block. It was last year's success that created the expectations MSU is now glad to have, but perhaps the key to the Bulldogs reaching this year's goals is their ability to not rest on what's already been done.
Sure, there's a banner hanging in MSU's Newell-Grissom Building at State's home court commemorating all that happened a year ago. There's the trophy sitting on Dennis' desk that says she was the top coach in the league last fall.
Those items are nice. They rightfully celebrate the high of 2021. They display Mississippi State's potential to do even more. What they don't do is guarantee more success. It's why it's vital MSU pushes ahead.
"With our girls right now, it's all about one day at the time, one match at a time – whoever's next on the schedule, that's all that matters," Dennis said. "We're a different team [than last year]. 2021 was special, but 2022, that's where we are right now. We're focused on what's in front of us. One of our core values is tunnel vision, so we're trying to look ahead. While it's important to reflect and look back…I don't want us to keep bringing up last year because we do have a new group of kids in there. We've got some transfers and freshmen who will play big roles for us, and all those players weren't on the team last year. So, it could get old to just keep talking about 2021 and what happened last year. So, we're just full steam ahead, eyes on the prize."
Darty has the great luxury of aiming for big things with a bunch of veteran players who saw what it took to reach the great heights of last year, as well as talented newcomers eager to help make their own mark. There's Gabby Waden, back after a season that saw her earn both All-SEC and All-America honors. There's Deja Robinson and Lauren Myrick and Lilly Gunter and Shania Cromartie and several others who were huge pieces of the 2021 puzzle. Add in names like graduate transfer Lacey Jeffcoat, promising true freshman Sophie Agee and more, and the Bulldogs have the parts in place to keep making waves in a new year.
But it bears emphasizing again, this is a new year full of new challenges, not the least of which are those expectations that have been left behind by last season's magnificence. Yet the Bulldogs refuse to put limits on their big hopes and dreams. In fact, it's right the opposite.
"We did something great [last year]," Dennis said. "We're going to try to do something great again."
