This weekend the Mississippi State Women’s Volleyball team took on the Auburn Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies. Auburn won the first match by a score of 3-2. Their team’s leader freshman Breana McIlroy totaled four digs and one service ace. Her teammates Breana Barksdale, Alyssa Ivey and Jesse Earl had a three way tie for two digs. At the end of the first set, the Bulldogs claimed the win in an extremely close one as Courtney Crable committed a service error. The Bulldogs blwblew pat overall totaled for 13 digs against Auburn’s 12.
The Bulldogs blew past the Tigers in he second set blew past the Tigers in the second set 25-18. Feeding off of the crowd’s electric energy, they delivered a fiery performance for another great start. Cheyenne Spell accounted for eight kills during the second set. Evie Grace Singleton earned six digs. The momentum shifted incredibly in Auburn’s favor in the decisive set Auburn’s sophomore Jesse Earl helped stage the comeback as she gave an incredible defensive stride and offensive effort. During this set Blossom Sato had great passes and kept the ball in play well. Emily Howard also racked up a total of eight kills.
In the fourth set, the game turned in Auburn’s favor as well. At one point in the set, the score was 20-10, not allowing a chance for State to recover. Auburn did not let up as they took advantage of the dying rhythm with Country Crable giving an incredible effort to top the Bulldogs 25-16 for a shot at an overtime comeback with a 2-2 tie. Set 5 was Auburn’s as they climbed to their overtime victory with no hesitation. Auburn controlled most of the set by keeping a steady tempo and correcting any small errors to roll pass the Bulldogs to win the set 15-11 and win the overall match 3-2. Coach McFatrich did applaud some girls in their improvement from the 0-3 loss from Arkansas the last match Nov. 8.
“The backrow and right side did well today,” he said. “I saw a great performance from Peyton Harris, Cheyenne Spell, Alex Warren and Jazmyn Johnson.” Johnson totaled for 13 kills and Harris earned 34 digs. Two days later, Texas A&M came to Starkville to face the Bulldogs. The Aggies swept the Bulldogs 3-0.
Evie Grace Singleton exploded in the match for an excellent performance with 16 kills and three digs. Many of these kills were set up by Sato who earned 21 assists in the game. In set 2, the Bulldogs started with being in front until the 15th point. Alex Warren set up great offensive chances to attempt a set win for four kills.
“The ladies excelled well with passes, a great rhythm and a strong defensive fight against one of the greatest teams in the conference,” McFatrich said. The third set the Aggies dominated to give them a set win 25-21 to sweep the Bulldogs 3-0. The next game is at South Carolina on Friday and two days later they will face the Georgia Bulldogs on the 22nd.
