Mississippi State volleyball stomached a heavy dose of experience this weekend. The youthful Lady Dawgs went 1-3 at the Quality Inn Tiger Invitational.
The Lady Bulldogs (4-4) came into the tournament riding the excitement of a new coaching staff and a 3-1 record.
The winning trend continued in Friday’s matchup with the Arkansas State Indians.
The Lady Dawgs taking three of four games to earn the victory. Junior Rachel Cooper led the Bulldog attack with 20 kills. The effort handed Arkansas State its first loss of the season.
“I thought we played good on Friday,” head coach Tina Seals said. “We stepped up to the competition, and played well.”
The team followed up the victory with a hard-fought loss to the Idaho Vandals. After dropping the first game 24-30, the Bulldogs rallied together to win the next two games in convincing fashion. The Lady Dawgs never trailed in the third game and gained a 2-1 lead in the match.
However, the Vandals stole the match catch fire, winning the fourth game decisively 30-17. This forced a deciding game five where the vandalization continued. Idaho took the match with a 15-9 decision. Saturday saw the Lady Dawgs suffer two of their worst defeats of the season, losing in straight games to both the Creighton Bluejays and host-team Missouri.
Creighton, the eventual champion, out-hit State .315 to .127. Ashley Williams and Leah Ratzlaff combined for 25 of Creighton’s 53 kills and made just two hitting errors.
Cooper led State’s attack with 10 kills and Ashley Sledge led the defensive effort with 12 digs at libero.
The Lady Bulldogs couldn’t hop back on the winning track against host Missouri. The Tigers hit .430 compared to the .135 registered by the Lady Dawgs.
Nicole Wilson led Mizzou with 13 kills and just one error.
Cooper and newcomer Orsolya Kriegel each tallied 11 kills while St. Louis-native Megan Lukasek made 11 digs in her first game at libero.
Seals blames youthful inexperience and the high quality of competition for the disappointing weekend.
“The competition was much tougher this weekend as far as RPI is concerned. Also we were the youngest team in the tournament,” Seals said. “There were times when we would have four or more freshmen on the court at one time. But overall we played well, and the experience was good for us.”
The Lady Dawgs can unpack their travel bags and look ahead to their home tournament beginning Friday in the Humphrey Coliseum.
The team will host Memphis, Louisiana Tech and Eastern Kentucky in a round-robin-style tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs start their home schedule Friday at 7 p.m.