October was certainly a spooky month for the Mississippi State volleyball team.
The Bulldogs (6-18, 1-12 SEC) lost 10 straight matches in the 10th calendar month and also lost a key freshman hitter to a knee injury. MSU won only two sets the entire month.
It all culminated Friday night, in which MSU fell at the hands of the Auburn Tigers, who were winless in the conference before the match.
The Tigers (6-18, 1-12 SEC) earned their first conference victory over the Bulldogs by scores of 25-13, 25-13 and 25-19.
MSU fifth-year head coach Tina Seals said a big contributor to the loss was the fact that the Bulldogs had a mid-week match against Alabama, giving the team no time to practice.
“We had a rough week,” Seals said. “We were coming off trying to get a different lineup set up, and we never really had time to get a good practice in to make those changes. We had several players and even a coach out all week, so it was hard.”
State did not put up much of a fight early on in the Halloween contest. Though the Bulldogs scored the very first point in the match, Auburn reeled off five straight points before routing the Dawgs in the opening set.
Mississippi State’s woes continued right through the second set, as Auburn never trailed in the set before defeating the Bulldogs with the identical score of the first set.
The Tigers again prevented the Bulldogs from leading in the final set en route to the match victory.
“Last year the team did not get one home win at all in the SEC,” Auburn head coach Wade Benson told AU media relations, “so it’s been almost two years since we had a home win. This is a big deal, along with the fact that we won 3-0, which was very impressive, especially at the scores that we did it in.”
Freshman hitter Mandy Mellencamp hit at a fairly solid .333 clip, notching five kills on the contest.
“Mandy played exceptionally well,” Seals said. “I was pleased with her effort on Friday.”
Six MSU freshmen saw action in the contest, proving Seals’ efforts to switch up the team’s lineup to become offensively potent.
The loss was the period at the end of a very long sentence for the Bulldogs, who began their losing streak Oct. 3 at home against South Carolina.
The dreadful month featured the Bulldogs’ only set wins coming against LSU and Georgia at home, on Oct. 17 and Oct. 19, respectively.
The Bulldogs have scored as little as 12 points in a set on occasion, and have hit at below-.100 percentages in half of the losses. MSU never finished a match hitting at least .200 in October.
“We just need to go out and fight for Mississippi State every time we go out on the court,” Seals said. “We need to play our best and improve every match. We have a chance for a lot of our freshmen to get a lot of playing time. That’s not happening around the SEC. This will make us stronger for the future.”