Bulldog Bash would not be complete without some SEC volleyball battles, and this weekend Mississippi State opens its home SEC schedule at the Newell-Grissom building. The Bulldogs return home after being on the road for the past three weeks,  taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks tonight  at 7, and the defending SEC champion LSU Tigers Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Head coach Jenny Hazelwood said she and the team are glad to be back for the weekend.
“I feel like we play our best at home. It’s our facility, and we’re playing in front of our crowd,” Hazelwood said. “It’s nice since we’ve been gone for a long time to get these girls back on our home court, so we will have those advantages.”
Although the Bulldogs lost the last three road games, seniors Ashley Newsome and Kayla Woodard both moved up on the record boards for Mississippi State volleyball. Newsome passed MSU great Brianne Smedley for fourth on MSU’s career block assists leaders. She also moved into fifth place with 321 career total blocks. Newsome said practice is the most important key to her blocking success.
“We practice [blocking] all the time, and I feel like I have improved a lot since I’ve been here,” Newsome said. “I just work on my skills and tell my teammates to hit hard at me so that I can get better because I want to be the best blocker in the SEC.”
Woodard actually passed  Hazelwood for eighth on the all time career digs list with 1,110. Hazelwood said she has no hard feelings towards Woodard for this great accomplishment.
“I’m like ‘Please dig every ball. I don’t care if you pass any records that I have because that means we’re doing good things,”’ Hazelwood said. “I was really excited to see that because she’s been working hard, and I think that she’s going to continue to do really good things throughout the season.”
Another bright spot for the team this past weekend was the play of sophomore middle blocker Mandy Mellencamp. Mellencamp tore her ACL last September and has worked hard to get back to full strength. She recorded 9 kills and 6 blocks in State’s match on Sunday. Besides the outstanding play that Mellencamp brings, she also pumps up the team through her encouragement and and energy.
“Ever since my injury, I don’t take this sport for granted. Every time I play, I’m happy to be playing and I just want to get the best out of it,” Mellencamp said. “I just try to be energized, and I know it helps everyone else when someone is being goofy or having fun on the court; I know it helps them be less stressed out and less nervous.”
Mellencamp has recovered at just the right time as the Bulldogs get ready for two big SEC matches this weekend. Hazelwood said the team is focusing on taking care of the little things it needs to do to be in position to win this weekend.
“Both Arkansas and LSU are very strong and very talented with a lot of really good athletes. I think that we can expect them to come in here with a lot of energy and a lot of intensity,” Hazelwood said. “We’ve got two tough opponents, but they’re teams that if we play well against, it will be a good match, and we can definitely compete with either of the teams.”
The Bulldogs are making sure to not look past Arkansas and just focus on the undefeated Tigers. To ensure this, the team focused on LSU during practice early in the week, but then focused solely on Arkansas so the Razorbacks would be the only team on its mind. Then after the match Friday and all day Saturday, the Dawgs will get geared up for the Tigers. Junior Caitlin Rance said the team is focused and excited to play these two teams at home.
“We’re just really focusing on the stuff that we’ve been struggling with lately, and we’re working hard to fix that so that we can come out strong against them,” Rance said. “I love playing at home, and I feel like it’s to our advantage that we’re at home; we just need to play for our fans.”
Hazelwood said that since MSU broke attendance records earlier this year, the bar has been high for the upcoming games.
“I know it’s a big weekend with Bulldog Bash, and there are a lot of events going on, but I hope people will really come out and support the volleyball team because we’ve got these two big matches, and we need that fan support. It really makes a huge, huge difference,” Hazelwood said. “I really want to urge the students because our student athletes are students, so when it’s their peers cheering for them and helping them win that match, it means a lot.”