For the Mississippi State volleyball team, it was a weekend of mixed emotions.
MSU defeated the 25th- ranked Kentucky Wildcats in straight sets Friday night 25-23, 25-18 and 25-19 to record the program’s first ever win over a ranked opponent, but the squad lost in straight sets to the 18th-ranked and league-leading Tennessee Volunteers 25-19, 25-18 and 28-26 on Sunday.
Friday night’s match, which was played in front of a school and state record crowd of 4,535 people in Humphrey Coliseum as a part of the inaugural Maroon Madness, was only the Bulldogs second ever win over the Wildcats. Team members agreed the large crowd played a role in MSU’s historic victory.
“It is awesome,” MSU senior hitter Caitlin Rance said. “It is awesome to be able to win in front of that many fans and to play well and make it exciting for them and make them want to come back.”
Freshman middle blocker Laney Wyman agreed with Rance.
“It was really fun. It added to our hype and our energy a lot having a lot of people there supporting us,” Wyman said. “It helped us out; it would be nice if people could come all the time.”
As seems to be the case in most matches, Rance led the way for the Bulldogs in their victory Friday night by notching 14 kills and 13 digs for her ninth double-double of the season. Junior Faith Steinwedell almost got a double-double of her own as she finished with 11 kills and nine digs. The good feelings from Friday’s upset victory wouldn’t last too long, though.
In what would prove to be a theme of the match, MSU got off to a slow start in the first set against Tennessee and was never able to overcome it. The Bulldogs were able to hold the Volunteers to only hitting .198, but they struggled offensively against a towering Vols team and did not execute up to Hazelwood’s standards.
“They hit .198. Anytime we can get one of the top offensive teams in our conference to hit .198, you know, going into this match I would have said that is a pretty good thing, but offensively we just didn’t get the job done,” Hazelwood said. “It is things scouting-report wise that we told them to look for, and I feel like we just failed to see that through.”
The Bulldogs were once again led by Rance, who had seven kills, while Wyman had seven kills of her own. Junior libero Hillary Parker led MSU with 19 digs, which was a match high. For Rance, who is only three kills shy of 1,000 for her career, it was only the third time all season she has been held in single digits in kills.
While the loss to the Volunteers was disappointing, the weekend was still somewhat of a success.
“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season if we would ever take a match from one of the best teams in the country, I would have taken it coming out of the weekend,” Hazelwood said. “Just disappointed again. I obviously hate losing.”
With the season at its midway point, the Bulldogs are 10-9 overall and 5-5 in SEC play. After struggling in Hazelwood’s first two years, the program is on pace to break the school record for conference victories. With 10 matches left to play, MSU needs only four victories in SEC play to set a new school record. The team also needs only two more victories to eclipse last year’s win total.
The Bulldogs will be on the road this weekend as they play at South Carolina Friday night and at Florida Sunday afternoon.