The Newell-Grissom building will house South Carolina (12-9, 4-8 SEC) and 18-time defending SEC champion, 10th-ranked Florida (16-3, 10-2 SEC) as Mississippi State volleyball (5-18, 1-11 SEC) faces off against the Gamecocks today at 7 p.m. and the Gators Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in a regionally televised match on CSS.
Coming off weekend matches featuring straight-set losses to Georgia and Auburn, the Bulldogs are looking to become a more consistent team, head coach Jenny Hazelwood said.
“We can’t play a set and then not finish at the end,” she said. “We’re doing a good job keeping in rallies. We have to find ways to put balls away and win those rallies.”
On the season, not including fifth-set matches, the Bulldogs have reached the 20-point mark in 50 of 79 sets overall, including 21 of 40 in SEC play.
The Bulldogs have had strong defensive performances in recent matches, but at times, the offense has struggled with only a 22-kill performance against Auburn, their second-lowest tally of the season.
“A big part of what we’ve been focusing on is being good more consistently and getting the most out of the girls on a consistent level and not just spurts here and there,” assistant coach Lindi Bankowski said.
South Carolina enters the match coming off a 3-1 loss to Arkansas despite featuring six players with a .333 hitting percentage or higher. Having switched to a 6-2 scheme, the Gamecocks have had the week to prepare and become more accustomed to the offensive style of play.
The Gators pose an ever-ready threat as sophomore outside hitter Colleen Ward and sophomore setter Kelly Murphy lead Florida averaging 3.21 and 3.12 kills per set, respectively. Defensively, Florida has out-blocked eight of its last nine opponents and in those nine matches, held a +46.5 blocking advantage.
Florida senior libero Elyse Cusack is now only the third player in SEC history to reach the 1,900-dig career mark. Cusack averages a team-best 4.21 digs per set on the season.
The Bulldogs will be looking to put themselves in better position to make plays on the ball and stay aggressive, assistant coach Brandon Higa said.
“The first contact on our side is what really drives everything forward so we get better defensively, we get ourselves in a better position to hit, our hitters will hit at a higher percentage,” he said.
MSU will have to be very solid all the way around against Florida, and facing South Carolina for the second time this season, the Bulldogs were still experimenting with the lineup in the first match, senior setter Dorey Gray said.
“Our defense has picked up a lot since then so I think [South Carolina] will be surprised by us,” she said.
The Bulldogs’ serving has been another strength recently, and the team will look for continued improvement in that aspect.
“Against Auburn we were really solid,” Hazelwood said. “That’s the only reason we were close, was because of the serving. You have to be a good serving team.”
Senior outside hitter Ioana Demian enters the weekend three kills shy of her 200th, and sophomore Caitlin Rance is on pace to reach the same mark with 183 on the season. Junior middle blocker Ashley Newsome paces MSU up front with a career-best 240 kills on the season along with 84 total blocks. With 1,124 career assists, Gray is three behind MSU’s No. 9 all-time leader, Kathy Moffett (1,127 in 1979-1980).