The Mississippi State volleyball Bulldogs will head east tonight for two-thirds of their remaining schedule.
Tonight, the Bulldogs (6-22, 1-16 SEC) will take on defending SEC champion No. 14 Florida (21-3, 15-2 SEC), while the Maroon and White will battle South Carolina (19-8, 10-7 SEC) Sunday.
Mississippi State lost both of the previous meetings against this weekend’s opponents by 3-0 scores.
This time, junior outside hitter Ioana Demian said the team has different, more realistic goals.
“We may not be able to beat Florida, but we can still at least compete,” Demian said. “That’s why we’re practicing hard entering this match. It’s not about winning, it’s about competing.”
Demian has been the leader of a struggling offense all year, as one of the team’s oldest hitters on the court. She has tallied 293 kills on the season with a .156 hitting percentage. As a team, the Bulldogs have been out-hit .134 to .224.
Demian said she wants the season to end on a positive note.
“I really hope we finish strong so we can have a good memory heading into the winter break,” she said. “I don’t want to finish so bad that we can’t come back excited. We need to know that we can be a good team, we just have to finish matches.”
MSU is in the midst of a 14-match losing streak dating back to Oct. 3, when South Carolina topped the Dawgs in Starkville. During the slide, the Bulldogs have won only four sets, have scored as little as four points in a single set, and lost freshman standout Faith Steinwedell to a season-ending knee injury.
Though things haven’t looked good for the team, second-year assistant coach Don Perkins said he sees a different side of the streak.
“You can call it a slump, but in some matches we’ve played good volleyball,” Perkins said. “This weekend will be a tough one. Florida’s won many SEC championships in a row, and South Carolina is good as well, but we can do it.”
Florida lost only its second conference match to No. 19 Kentucky last weekend, dropping Florida to a half-game behind the Wildcats in the SEC standings with only two weeks remaining in the season. Only twice in the history of SEC volleyball has a team forced a share in the SEC lead with the Gator dynasty.
Last weekend’s loss, Perkins said, will light a fire under Florida.
“We’re not going to be able to go out and play well against Florida,” Perkins said. “We have to go out and play really well. And that will give us a good measure about how our team is.”
Though MSU would love to play spoiler to Florida’s championship hopes, the task seems daunting. In the 33-match series history, the Bulldogs have never taken a match from the Gators.
Sunday might prove to be an easier contest, though the Gamecocks of South Carolina will be no pushover. South Carolina has won three straight contests against the Bulldogs and holds a 20-7 lead all-time.
Perkins said he was impressed with the way the freshmen have persisted in their work ethic throughout the loss-heavy season and mentioned the team had a great practice Tuesday.
“Everybody has good days and bad days at work, in class, or whatever,” Perkins said. “You’re a little sharper, a little quicker, and we had one of those days in practice Tuesday. Everyone played well and aggressively. We looked around and knew to ourselves that, in that moment, we were a good team. It’s good to have a practice like that this week heading into these two tough matches.”
Several freshmen have stepped in and posted leader-quality numbers on the season, despite this being their inaugural year.
Mandy Mellencamp leads the team with a .204 hitting percentage, while Steinwedell was near the top of the leaderboard in kills before her injury. Fellow freshmen Kellye Jordan and Grace Hoyt have stepped in to fill her role in her absence.
Sophomore defensive specialist Kayla Woodard, the team’s only active player who started last season, said the Bulldogs have a unique advantage over other teams in the conference.
“We have a very bright future,” Woodard said. “We have had ups and downs this season, but as far as finishing strong this season, it gives us hope for next season because we’re not losing anyone.”
It is vital for MSU’s freshmen to step up and work hard over the final matches of the season. For this squad, it is not a convenience, but a necessity.