The home season for Mississippi State athletics kicks off tonight with the volleyball team taking the court to start the 2011 Maroon Classic. Southern Illinios, Southeastern Louisiana and the University of Tennessee at Martin will join the Bulldogs to participate in the tournament.
MSU has won 12 straight home openers and the past seven season openers. To continue this streak, the team will have to defeat a Southern Illinois team that beat the Bulldogs in straight sets last year. The Salukis packed the house when State visited last year, so head coach Jenny Hazelwood said she hopes to see a large crowd at Friday night’s game to help get the win.
“They are a well-coached team that recruits strong players; losing three seniors is a blow to them, but I know they’re going to come back strong and are going to have a game plan and figure out how to take advantage of our weaknesses,” Hazelwood said. “It will be a fight either way and I’m excited that’s the match such a large crowd will get to see; it will be a great match with two good teams going at it.”
Game time for the Bulldogs and Salukis is 7 p.m. following a match between UT-Martin and Southeastern Louisiana at 4 p.m. Saturday’s schedule features Southern Illinois against Southeastern Louisiana at 10 a.m., MSU vs. UT-Martin at 12:30 p.m., Southern Illinois and UT-Martin at 4:30 p.m. and finishes when Mississippi State takes on Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m.
To prepare for the opening weekend of the season, Hazelwood and the rest of the coaching staff have been putting the girls in different pressure situations that require them to come back from large deficits with difficult consequences if they lose. Senior captain Caitlin Rance said the team has been working very hard to get where they are today.
“We’re really focusing on being competitive,” Rance said. “We’ve been doing a lot of drills in practice where the pressure is on the starting side, so we’re doing a lot better coming back when we do get down.”
Rance, who led the team in kills last year and finished fifth in the SEC in kills, must continue her consistent play with the help of a few new players. Junior captain Faith Steinwedell returns from a torn ACL and will control the right side of the net.
The middle of the net now belongs to junior Mandy Mellencamp. Losing Ashley Newsome, who was second in the SEC in blocks last year as a senior, will be a big blow for State, but Mellencamp is confident she can take over for Newsome.
“I have big shoes to fill, but I feel like it’s a good role to have, especially this year because it’s my fourth year, and I have one more to go,” Mellencamp said. “I think that if I am consistent, I will be able to step up to her level.”
However, Mellencamp will not be alone in this endeavor. Freshman Lainey Wyman will also be playing middle blocker for the Bulldogs this weekend. The Illinois native will begin her collegiate career playing against her home state, but Hazelwood does not foresee this causing any problems for Wyman.
“The neat thing about Lainey through practices is that she’s not someone who gets real high highs or real low lows; she’s pretty steady,” Hazelwood said. “I think that Lainey will be ready to play, and I think she will have a really strong weekend.”
Wyman and the rest of her teammates hope to start the season off undefeated, and Hazelwood said she also is looking forward to seeing the girls respond to playing in front of such a large crowd.
“One of the things that I’m most excited about is that if we have the kind of crowd that we will on Friday, then these girls have to perform with that added pressure, and I think that’s a great thing,” Hazelwood said. “It will be more fun for them to have the pressure of a lot of people and I hope no matter the level of our opponent, we play at a consistently high level.”