Any structure must be built with the first brick.The first brick was laid Sunday afternoon as Mississippi State’s volleyball team chalked up its first SEC victory over Arkansas.
The Lady Bulldogs will look to continue building their way to an SEC championship tonight and Sunday, as they will take on the universities of Florida and South Carolina.
“The Arkansas win was really important because we put in a lot of time and effort into it,” MSU fourth-year head coach Tina Seals said. “We finally got Erin [Seago] back in, and we capitalized on that. We had everyone back in for the first time in a long time, and we got that win. They’re also in the West, and it’s important for us to get that win. Our goal is to win the SEC.”
MSU will tussle with Florida in its first game of the weekend, which takes place tonight at 7 p.m. at the Newell-Grissom Building.
“Florida is going to be really tough,” Seals said. “We just need to play our style of volleyball and compete with them, and we’ll see how the score ends up.”
Seals said that she thinks her team will match up well with South Carolina.
“We want to go out there and beat them, just like we did twice last year,” Seals said.
The Gators (11-0, 4-0), the favorites to win the SEC, are fresh off a dominant weekend.
They made their way through Ole Miss and LSU and defeated them by scores of 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.
MSU will look to be the first to mar UF’s currently unblemished record.
Florida currently owns the series over MSU by a daunting record of 30-0.
The Gamecocks of South Carolina (7-6, 0-4) will test the Lady Bulldogs Sunday afternoon at 1:30.
USC, hungry for its first conference win, dropped its previous two matches against LSU and Ole Miss by scores of 3-0 and 3-1.
The team is nearly opposite of Florida, schedule-wise.
South Carolina leads MSU in the all-time series by a record of 17-7. The Lady Bulldogs swept the series last season.
Mississippi State went 8-12 in the SEC last season, earning six of its wins in the latter half of the SEC season.
According to Seals, every SEC win the team attains is vital.
“The SEC is strong through and through,” Seals said. “Whenever you get a win, whether it’s your first, fourth or tenth, it’s always a big win. We need to win every SEC match we come across.”
Senior middle blocker Erin Seago had her best outing of the season so far against Arkansas.
Still nursing a foot injury, Seago will see as much playing time as possible, according to Seals.
“The upperclassmen’s injuries are probably there to stay,” Seals said. “They’ll just have to tough them out and play hard from here on out.