A bittersweet weekend awaits the seniors of the Mississippi State volleyball team. Ole Miss and Alabama come to town to finish State’s season and close the book on the careers of four players.
Last weekend the Bulldogs ended a season-long eight game losing skid by sweeping the Auburn Tigers on the road. This weekend MSU hosts two of the five teams it beat in the first round of SEC play.
Since three of the five first-round victories came in the final three games, head coach Jenny Hazelwood said she foresaw a potential rough stretch of matches.
“I don’t think we should have had that many losses in a row, but I knew the way it was setting up it could have been discouraging for the girls, and I’m just really proud of the fact that they didn’t throw in the towel and came out fighting against Auburn,” Hazelwood said. “This group is still learning what it means to win week in and week out because this program hasn’t done that, so the lessons we’ve learned this year will be huge for us in the future to make sure we don’t go through similar ups and downs.”
Friday’s game will be against an Ole Miss team that has won four of its last seven matches. Ole Miss’ three losses were close matches against three of the top teams in the SEC.
In the last meeting, State pulled out a five-set victory in Oxford, and junior libero Hillary Parker said she is hoping to see the same result this weekend.
“We’re going to focus a lot on their two key players, the middle and right side. They are the leaders of the team, and if we can contain them we have a pretty good shot,” Parker said. “That’s what we did earlier this year, so if we do that, we will be good.”
Part of the focus this weekend will be on State’s four players finishing out their careers. Seniors Caitlin Rance and Hannah Wilkinson are completing their final year at MSU, while junior Hillary Parker is graduating a year early and junior Faith Steinwedell is leaving after four years for medical reasons.
Rance, who is a captain for the Dogs this season, has tallied a career-high 412 kills so far in 2011, which is fourth-most by a Bulldog. Earlier this season she eclipsed the 1,000 hit mark; Rance said she considers this her greatest accomplishment in her time at MSU and has now reached 1,107 kills.
After transferring to State from BYU-Hawaii her junior year, Wilkinson made an immediate impact. She is currently second on the team with 83 blocks and has amassed 139 kills on the year. Hazelwood said Rance outworks everyone around her, and Wilkinson is one of the best athletes in the gym.
“Rance has been our go-to player; she is what every coach hopes a student athlete will be. She takes as her mindset that she is going to work harder than everyone in gym and be the best at everything she does,” Hazelwood said. “Hannah is by far one of the most improved players in the last year, and I attribute that to her work ethic and athletic ability.”
Parker will be graduating a year early and heading back to her hometown of College Station, Texas. The junior was asked to change positions this year and take over the defense at the libero spot and has done so with ease. She leads the team with 327 digs on the year.
Due to two ACL tears in her four years at State, Steinwedell, who is also a captain, will be leaving after the season to recover from her injuries. The California native has been a key part of State’s success this season as she has played full rotation for most of the season.
Hazelwood said she hopes these girls can end their careers on a good note with two big wins this weekend.
“Faith has had a lot on her mentally this year, and she has put in a lot to this program to get us up to where we are,” Hazelwood said. “With Hillary, what more can you ask? She developed into a great defensive player and became one of the better or even the best in the league. She has been fantastic and helped accomplish a lot of what we needed to accomplish this year.”
The girls said they will miss everything about volleyball at MSU, especially the relationships made with teammates. Rance and Wilkinson agreed the three-set win over Kentucky this year at the Hump was their most memorable moment in the past four years.
State looks for two wins to close out the year and also tie its record for conference wins in a season set in 2007 with eight. Rance said the team has been preparing for these two games and will come out hard.
“It’s definitely bittersweet because we are excited for the weekend but don’t want it to end,” Rance said. “I want to go out winning both these games; they will not be easy games, but we should come out with a lot of fight.”
Friday night’s match will begin at 7 p.m., and Sunday’s game starts at 1:30 p.m. and will be preceded by the senior salute.