The Mississippi State University women’s volleyball team displayed its best performances within SEC play this past weekend, as it was able to hold on to a thrilling win over Tennessee on Friday and take last year’s SEC champions Missouri to five sets before falling in the last couple of points of the game. It was a weekend that could prove to ignite the Bulldogs’ season and give them the confidence to continue to give some of the SEC powers trouble throughout the rest of its seasons. Many of the Bulldog players set season highs over the weekend, and in the end it wasn’t just a couple of individuals doing the work, but rather the entire team stepped up to make the weekend a success.
Head coach Jenny Hazelwood was consumed with joy and pride after the win against Tennessee.  
“I am so proud of these girls on a complete team win,” Hazelwood said. “I love seeing the fight in such a special group. They are such a blessing to coach.”
The Bulldogs were able to jump out to a 2-0 set lead on the volunteers and were looking to potentially win in straight sets, but Tennessee wouldn’t allow that to happen.
The Volunteers used two long runs in the third set of six and seven points to grab  back a set in the match 25-18. The Bulldogs tried to avoid a pressurized fifth set, but were unable to as Tennessee again strung together a series of excellent stretches to win the fourth set 25-19 and tie the match overall at 2-2.
The fifth set of the match proved to be a close one with both teams going back and forth at one another, which eventually brought the score to 13-13. In the last two points of the first to 15 winner-take-all set, Chelsea Duh’s kill and an attacking error from Tennessee were just enough for the Bulldogs to gain the victory in the set 15-13 and win the match, giving them their first SEC win of the season. 
One of the key contributors for the Bulldogs on the night was sophomore Bali Leffall-Young, who finished with a double-double of 11 kills and 12 total blocks for the game. Alex Warren and Chelsea Duh both recorded 12 kills, and Duhs totaled five block assists. Lastly, freshman Peyton Harris had another very good showing on the season as she posted 22 digs for the game, her 15th time this season with over 20 digs in a game. 
The Bulldogs faced a short time to rest up before welcoming last season’s SEC champions Missouri to Starkville on Sunday. The Bulldogs came out firing and battled with the Tigers all through the first. The set was highlighted by two very nice back-to-back kills by Duhs to put the Bulldogs up 20-18.  With the score set at 23-22, the Bulldogs would close the game out winning the next two out of three points, and the winning blow would come on a Kelsey Stommes kill to put the Bulldogs up 1-0 in the set.
Missouri would answer back aggressively in the next two sets. Starting with the second set, the Tigers jumped out to a 21-11 advantage. The Tigers would end up winning the set easily at 25-12 and they would soon carry that momentum into the third set. The final score of the third set ended at 25-13 in favor of Missouri, outscoring the Bulldogs 50-25 in the second and third sets. 
The Bulldogs would respond positively in the fourth set. With the score tied at 17-17 and every little movement being elevated in terms of importance, Harris came up with a spectacular dig to keep the play alive and the point eventually ended in a Missouri error. The fifth set started out evenly paced with both teams taking advantage of their chances to make the score 5-5 early. This was followed by a Bulldog run that would put MSU up 11-6 and on the verge of victory. However, in heartbreaking fashion for the Bulldogs and their supporters, Missouri would respond with a 9-1 run to end the game 15-12 in its favor. Regan Peltier for the Tigers put the finishing touches on the match with game-winning kill that prevented the upset from occurring.
Hazelwood described the weekend as a whole as being a tremendous step in the right direction for where they want to be by season’s end.
“This whole weekend I feel like we’ve made such huge strides in all areas of the game but especially blocking,” she said. “I’m really proud of the way our girls have played.”     
Duhs described the match as exciting and hard fought, but in the end an indication they are improving as the season progresses.
“We came out and fought really hard. It’s obviously a bummer we lost, but we made a lot of improvements in our blocking and defense, so we will just need to focus on coming out harder to get some future wins,” she said.
Offensively, Duhs and Warren posted double-digit kill totals. Shelby Anderton finished the match with 34 assists and 14 digs. Anderton said the weekend’s performance will be a huge boost to the team’s mindset moving forward.  
“It will definitely be big. We have yet to go five sets, and we’re winning five-set games now and that’s an improvement,” she said. “We beat Tennessee, and I think we have a good chance against South Carolina on Friday, so we’re just going to go up from here.”
The Bulldogs next travel to South Carolina on Friday, then go south to Gainesville for a matchup with No. 8 Florida on Sunday.