Mississippi State
11-13,5-10SEC
#25 Missouri
19-7,10-4SEC
Mississippi State Knocks Off #25 Missouri Tigers on Senior Day
November 24, 2024 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE – In the last home match of the year the Mississippi State Bulldogs defeated the #25 Missouri Tigers, 3-1.
The Bulldogs defeated a ranked opponent for the first time since October 2023 on Sunday. After dropping the first set 25-19, State made a huge comeback to win the next three sets. With State leading the second set for the entirety of the match, they took the win on an attacking error by the Tigers. Set three and four stayed were tit for tat, but the Bulldogs pulled out the victory on another attack error by the Tigers.
Two senior Bulldogs picked up a double-double in the match. Kailin Newsome collected her 12th of the year with 12 kills and 11 digs while Ceci Harness picked up her sixth with 52 assists and 13 digs.
Karli Schmidt tallied a team-best 15 kills, while Amina Shackelford collected 12. Rebecca Walk and Arissa Smith grabbed eight kills as well for the Bulldogs, as Smith finished with a team best hitting percentage of .292.
For only the third time this year, five Bulldogs collected double-digit digs. McKenna Yates tallied the team best 22 digs, her sixth consecutive match with double-digits digs with five of those being 20+. Mele Corral-Blagojevich picked up a career-high 19 digs and Mary Neal collected 10 to round out the five.
Corral-Blagojevich had a team-leading two service aces, while Yates picked one up as well. Walk led the team with five total blocks, Shackelford collected three and Harness picked up two.
The Bulldogs will conclude their season in Athens, Georgia against the Georgia Bulldogs this Wednesday at 5 p.m. The match will be broadcast on SECN+.
Quoting Julie Darty Dennis
On the emotions behind senior night...
There is always emotion on senior night. You can either play into it or play with it, and I feel like our team played with it. There are six really special people in there and they mean a lot to the program. We knew Missouri was going to be well prepared and an extremely tough team. I think our team just wanted it for the seniors. This was the grand finale for them. The Griss is such a special place, these fans and this family means the world to us. I am so proud of them for making the most out of senior Sunday and getting a top-25 win.
On the team...
They stayed so composed. They played hard, they've showed guts and they've showed grit. I think they just persevered and it's beautiful. I am so excited that is how we get to leave the 2024 season at home. We've had some ups and downs, but today was certainly a spotlight moment for the team. We talked about how special a group this team is. It just means a lot that we were able to beat a top-25 team for the first time this season.
On Ceci's numbers on offense...
Cecil has the nickname Cecil Diesel for a reason. That kid's tough. She's an athlete and she's a sneaky blocker, and I think people overlook her in the front row. They try to comb over her, and she gets free touches, so I think she stays composed when her team works so hard for her. She did a great job. We wanted to establish right off the bat and get the middles going, and that's exactly what we did. Ceci is doing a great job with the offense, and I am really proud of her.
On the legacy the senior class is leaving on the program...
I think they all have a unique story. They have all just come in and left their marks in so many ways and left it better than they found it.
Quoting Ceci Harness
On the emotions senior night win...
I mean it's just the best way to have a day like today and to end with a win. The locker room mindset going into this game was just playing hard working hard and I told the girls we've never been disappointed when we all just go hard and that's exactly what happened today. Super happy about that. It's just kind of perfect.
On her third match with 50 or more assists this season...
That's absolutely insane to think about. I'm so thankful and blessed for the opportunity to do this. One thing about this team is that all our hitters can get going. We spread the wealth and it's not always one person taking all the kills, everybody picks them up. I believe in spreading the offense out and our passers and defense were doing a great job getting balls up to target. That made my job a lot easier, and our hitters came through.
On the legacy of this senior class
This class was special because we're all fifth-year students. It's something that can be sort of rare in a program. Julie [Darty Dennis] did a great job of putting us all together and we welded together.
Quoting Karli Schmidt
On focusing back in and winning this match...
Like Ceci said, I think we channeled out emotions into excitement, and we just play with a lot of heart and played hard, and you know every time we play hard we're never disappointed, so we can be really, really happy with the result we put up today and it was such a good way to end our senior career here.
On the legacy of this senior class
We're a team who played hard every single day. We went to practice with a chip on our shoulder. We were always ready to work hard and give our best effort every single day. We still have one more game to look forward to, but we can feel good about the effort we put out on the floor.
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