The Mississippi State volleyball team suffered its first conference loss Friday night, losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide by the score of 3-1.
The Bulldogs (10-2, 1-1 SEC) began the match strong, dominating Alabama (6-4, 1-0 SEC) in game one 30-16 but lost momentum in games two, three and four by scores of 30-18, 30-19 and 30-26.
The loss prevents MSU from going 2-0 in SEC play, a task the team has never done in program history.
“We knew we were going to play a very good Alabama team,” MSU volleyball head coach Tina Seals said. “I think we did a good job of starting strong, and the difference between the first and second game were our serve receptions.
“When we can’t receive serves, we can’t do anything else. When we started to have problems with serve reception, we didn’t get our style of play started as well as we could have.”
Mississippi State never trailed in the opening game, jumping out to a 5-1 lead and even leading 15-5 at one point.
The Dawgs went on to win 30-16. Junior outside hitter Cristina Jucan led the Bulldogs in the period, chalking up five kills.
MSU’s defense held the Crimson Tide to a measly .033 hitting percentage in game one.
The match’s momentum shifted drastically in game two, as MSU and UA seemed to switch roles. The Tide never fell behind in the second period.
With a 12-2 run at the end, Alabama put MSU away with a 30-18 win. Jucan again tallied five kills, leading the Bulldogs.
Though MSU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in game three, Alabama managed to put together an 11-0 run to overtake the Bulldogs.
UA went on to win game three 30-19.
Game four featured a 16-16 stalemate from which Alabama managed to pull away.
Though MSU mounted a late comeback in the fourth stanza, Bama sealed the deal with a 30-26 win, serving up MSU its first conference loss of the year.
“The season is pretty young, and we’ve got our hopes set high,” Seals said. “Everyone in the SEC has improved this year including us. Orshi and our junior class are experienced in the SEC, and that experience should help us improve.”
UA out-hit State .380 to .285 and also notched 12 service aces to the Bulldogs’ five.
Cristina Jucan and Orshi Kriegel teamed to lead the Bulldogs offensively, notching 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
Eva Kriegel also made her presence known, contributing 44 assists and eight digs.
MSU will host conference foes Kentucky (8-2, 1-1) and Tennessee (8-2, 0-1) next weekend at Newell-Grissom, looking to recover from the loss to Alabama.
“Kentucky has had a great pre-conference showing,” Seals said. “They were really competitive Sunday against LSU, and our game should be competitive against them. UT went to the Final Four last season, so they will be tough. It is top-notch competition, but that’s what we want, and I think we’ll be ready for it.”