The weekend was a lot more costly than the Mississippi State volleyball Bulldogs (6-16, 1-10 SEC) ever anticipated.
In the second set of Friday night’s match against Kentucky, freshman hitter Faith Steinwedell, who has emerged this season as one of the Bulldogs’ offensive leaders, went down with a knee injury and is out for the season. On the abrupt end of her rookie season, Steinwedell finished with a total of 134 kills, which is good for second on the team until her injury.
Fifth-year MSU head coach Tina Seals said the injury leaves a big gap in the already-struggling offense.
“Faith didn’t only make an impact in attacking, but also in digs, blocking, and setting,” Seals said. “It’s not like we lost one starter, but several.”
The Bulldog offense is no stranger to injury this season, as outside hitter and lone senior Cristina Jucan has been out for all of the conference season with a back injury.
For the most part, the responsibility of becoming the offense’s leader now falls heavily on junior Ioana Demian. The Baia Mare, Romania, product tallied 23 kills over the weekend in the absence of Steinwedell.
“The team didn’t really turn to me and tell me I was the leader, but I feel that responsibility anyway,” Demian said. “Everyone steps in and does their job pretty well, so it’s not like I’m the only one expected to do well.”
In terms of wins and losses, the Bulldogs dropped both contests against Kentucky and Tennessee, but the story remains about MSU’s offensive woes.
The Bulldogs tallied 47 errors over the weekend, while their opponents made only 21.
“We’re a young team,” Seals said, “so a half-practice with a new lineup wasn’t enough to get comfortable. We just have to grow up faster.”
Friday night saw the Wildcats of Kentucky (20-3, 11-1 SEC) down the Volleydogs in straight sets, by scores of 25-19, 25-23 and 25-15.
In what was a very defensive
contest in which no team had a player with double-digit kills, freshman hitter Mandy Mellencamp paced the Bulldog offense with seven kills. Kentucky’s leading hitter, sophomore Sarah Mendoza, had only eight.
In line with what has been unfolding all season long for MSU, hitting errors made the difference in the match. Though Kentucky tallied a high 16-error mark on the contest, MSU managed to make more mistakes with 29.
As a result of the Steinwedell injury in the second set, fellow freshmen Caitlin Rance and Kellye Jordan saw more action as a result, finishing the UK contest with two kills each.
With Steinwedell on crutches looking on, the Bulldogs continued to make mistakes at the net against Tennessee (15-8, 8-4 SEC) Sunday. The Lady Vols out-hit MSU .384 to .170 as the Bulldogs fell to UT in straight sets 25-16, 25-16 and 25-17.
After losing the first two sets, Seals shook things up with a new lineup that featured freshmen Grace Hoyt and Aynne Swindell seeing action after the intermission. This created rotations that featured at least three inexperienced freshmen on the court at times for the Bulldogs. The Bulldog offense began to spark, however, and hung with Tennessee fairly well in the beginning of the third set.
Then the Lady Vols pulled away and won the set 25-17.
Mellencamp, who has started in every MSU match alongside Steinwedell until Steinwedell’s injury, finished with six kills on a .211 outing against the Lady Vols.
Sunday marked the first time Mellencamp and Steinwedell did not start together this season.
“Any time we have to use a new rotation in a match makes it tough to adjust,” Mellencamp said. “When we have only one practice to make those adjustments, it makes it very hard.”
A bright spot for MSU, Demian led the offense in Sunday’s match with 18 kills on a .536 performance.
Hitting errors and offensive mistakes continue to define the Bulldogs’ season, however. MSU has now lost eight straight matches, winning only two sets of those matches.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Volleydogs. Already having to deal with little time to adjust its offense without Steinwedell, MSU is slated to host Alabama (10-10, 3-8 SEC) Wednesday at 7 p.m. with only two days’ rest.
Seals said the team will be forced to adjust its offense, regardless of its youth.
“We just have to grow up faster,” Seals said. “We’ve been in every match and had chances to win. We’ve been improving. And we have to keep doing that.”
Alabama, similar to MSU, is on a bit of a losing streak, having lost its last four matches in a row.
The Crimson Tide has owned the series between the two schools as of late. MSU won a meeting in Starkville in 2006, but Alabama has won every contest since 1999 except that one.
The formula of Steinwedell’s injury, MSU’s offensive struggles and the short break makes it seem like the Bulldogs do not have much of a chance against the Crimson Tide.
However, the Bulldogs may have a little extra motivation from the fact that five of the team’s players, including four starters, as well as Coach Seals, are from Alabama.
Alabama is the only SEC team the Bulldogs haven’t played once already this season, but Seals said the team began working on breaking down game film soon after the Tennessee match.
“We’ll work as hard as we can before the Alabama match, but it will be tough because of the short week,” Seals said. “But we have to put the injury [to Steinwedell] behind us and move on. I believe in this group.”