In a hard-fought match Wednesday night the Mississippi State volleyball team hosted the Ole Miss Rebels at the Newell-Grissom Building in front of one of its biggest crowds of the season. It was a night in which freshman Payton Harris set the Mississippi State single-season record for digs, with six games still remaining in the season. While some of the Bulldog players played well individually, it was not enough to overcome the Rebels’ aggressive style of play. The Bulldogs would ultimately end up suffering the 3-1 loss after they were unable to pick up a win in either of the two very competitive third and fourth sets.
After the match, Head Coach Jenny Hazelwood pointed to a couple of the areas in which her team has made strides this season. She said she has been pleased with her team’s desire to improve. 
“Big improvement.  Just from a match-to-match basis, you can see where our offense these last two matches has been much, much better,” she said. “Our blocking has really picked it up. Today we were in the net a lot, which I am not crazy about that, but our passing was better today than it has been. We are just starting to see progress day in and day out, and that’s how you build a team. That’s how you put yourself in a position to win.”
With the loss, the Bulldog’s record fell to 6-21 overall with tough games coming up in the horizon against Alabama, LSU and Georgia. While their record may portray them as being highly uncompetitive or somewhat struggling to find a sound footing in the SEC, that is hardly the case of late. Through the first couple months of the season, they were forced to deal with a plethora of injuries that left them in a vulnerable spot going into the SEC schedule. This can be supported by just taking a look at their last six games. In these games, MSU has won eight sets and even picked up a win at home versus Tennessee, compared to winning no sets in its first six games of the conference schedule. 
Along with this, they took last year’s SEC champions Missouri to five sets and were just two points away from picking up the upset. Also, when the team has been unable to win a set, the overwhelming majority of them have been very narrow, hard fought losses the Bulldogs were just unfortunate not to get a couple of breaks in. 
In general, there exists two facets of the Bulldog’s game that must be improved. They must attempt to get off to better starts at the beginning of games, as they continually have found themselves having to fight back in the first set of the majority of their matches this season. The other area, which has come up over the last couple of matches, would be working on improving their performance at the end of very close sets. There have been lots of moments, such in the game on Wednesday night, where the score has been tied late, but the Bulldogs have not been able to pull out the win.  Hazelwood addressed this issue Wednesday night, by citing the early season injuries as the main setback that has affected their end of set performances. 
“We have talked a lot here recently about being really aggressive at the end and playing to win. Early on when we were just trying to figure out line ups with having people out with injuries and stuff, we lost a lot of valuable time trying to figure out how to win,” Hazelwood said. “We’re getting to the point now to where we are in a bunch of matches, we just have to figure out how to push and win.”
The same problems that have plagued the Bulldogs all season long came up again Wednesday night. Just 13 points into the first set, the Bulldogs found themselves down in a 9-4 hole, representing another slow start right out of the gate. To their credit, just as they have done a lot this season, the Bulldogs fought back to take the lead 13-12 after an Alex Warren kill set up by Shelby Anderton. 
The Rebels took little time in responding as they rallied to retake the lead and would eventually find themselves up 19-17.  From this point on, the Rebels went on a 7-0 run to close out the set 25-17 with the final blow coming from a Ty Laporte kill.
The Bulldogs responded well in the second set. The two teams exchanged points all throughout the second set, eventually culminating in a 19-17 score line in favor of the Bulldogs. From here, the Bulldogs closed out the set thanks to another Warren kill, with the final score of 25-23. 
Coming out of halftime both teams looked to take the upper hand in the match. The third frame proved to be the match’s most closely contested set, with no team holding a lead more than three points at any point. The Bulldogs held a 22-19 lead late in the third set, but their inability to close out sets this season reared its ugly head again, as Ole Miss would go on a 6-1 run to steal the third set away from the Bulldogs and take the overall lead at 2-1. 
Ole Miss carried that momentum and jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the fourth set. However, the feisty Bulldog squad again was able to muster up some inspiration and proceeded to fight its way back into the set. After a Leticia Valente kill tied the score at 18, Ole Miss called a timeout to regroup, and it seemed as if the momentum potentially swung in the favor of Mississippi State. However, after the timeout, Ole Miss came out more focused and pulled away late to win the set 25-21 and the overall match at 3-1. 
Some key contributors on the match were Warren and Chelsea Duhs, who finished with 15 and 12 kills, respectively. Along with them, Anderton had a hefty 43 assists and 10 digs, her fifth double-double of the season.  After the game, Anderton described the game as being closely contested and one they can learn from going forward.
“I think we were super competitive, and it was neck-to-neck the entire time,” she said. “We were exhausted, and everyone played their hearts out. We just didn’t finish at the end and it’s a learning experience. We’re going to learn how to finish.”
The star for the Bulldogs in this game was Harris, who again put out an excellent showing, compiling 29 digs for the match, giving her a total of 637 for the season. This was enough to surpass the Mississippi State single-season record for digs, which was previously held by Roxanne McVey, who had 632 digs last season. Harris also currently sits fourth on the SEC single-season digs list, only four behind third place. 
In response to her accomplishment, Harris spoke more toward how her ability to dig the ball can help her team be successful.
“It’s nice,” she said. “I’m just trying to do what I need to for our team to win, and if that’s to dig a ball, then it’s to dig a ball,”
The Bulldogs travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama Wednesday before returning home to play against LSU on Nov. 16.