SEC play is finally here for the Mississippi State volleyball team. The Bulldogs travel to Oxford this Sunday to take on Ole Miss in its first conference game. The match begins at 1 p.m. and will be televised regionally by Cox Sports TV.
The Bulldogs had one final non-conference game Wednesday night against Southern Miss in preparation for their SEC-opener. But State did not finish its non-conference schedule on a high note, losing to the Golden Eagles in straight sets 25-18, 25-16, 25-18.
A bright spot for the Bulldogs was the play of sophomore outside hitter Channelle Baker. She finished with a career high 13 kills in the match hitting an impressive percentage of .692. Baker had only one hitting error in her 19 attempts. The team leader in kills, Caitlin Rance, finished second on the team with 11 kills. Senior libero Kayla Woodard’s six digs moved her into Mississippi State’s career top 10 in digs.
But the Bulldogs are still optimistic about the rest of its season as they enter SEC play with an 8-3 record as opposed to last year’s 4-7 record at this time. Last year, the Bulldogs claimed its first SEC win at Ole Miss, and it is looking to do the same this year.
Head coach Jenny Hazelwood said every Ole Miss — Mississippi State game is very exciting.
“It’s always going to be a big crowd, so it’s just going to be really loud,” Hazelwood said. “It will be a fun, crazy environment to play in. I think that kind of atmosphere usually pumps them up, and we tend to play well.”
The players are excited about this game as well. Seniors Woodard and Ashley Newsome said they are looking forward to their last visit to Oxford. Newsome said she is ready for this experience.
“I’m looking forward to it being a good game,” she said. “I know they are going play us really hard. They’re our rivals, so we’re going to compete really hard; it’s going to be a good game.”
Newsome has had a lot of experience playing at Ole Miss, but for three of State’s key players, this is their first experience. Freshman Paris Perret sets full rotation for the team, while freshman Iwa Belisario is a vital back row player. Freshman Dani McCree will be hitting right side for the Bulldogs. These three girls will have to focus and block out all the excess noise around them.
Perret said she believes the team can pull out this victory even though it will be tough.
“We’ve been preparing since July with conditioning just to get to this point of SEC play,” Perret said. “Now we just want to show and prove to everyone, including ourselves, that we can compete at this level in the SEC.”
The players are eagerly anticipating this match, but they also know it will be a hard one. Rance said they know what the match will be like, but they still have to battle hard like every other game.
“It’s going to be hard. They are the team that heckles the most when you are there, so it’s going to be different since the freshmen aren’t used to that,” Rance said. “They are going to get to experience what it’s like to play someone who you are raised to hate.”
With this in mind, the upperclassmen have tried to give some advice to the younger girls before the match. Rance said they have to really focus and play hard this match.
“We are just going to tell them that you have to ignore what the fans are going to be saying because they aren’t going to be nice things,” Rance said. “You just have to block out everything around you and really focus on playing.”
After its match against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs return to Starkville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks and the LSU Tigers next weekend.