The Mississippi State University volleyball team fell 3-1 to the No. 12 University of Tennessee Friday night at home in the Newell-Grissom Building.
Bulldogs’ head coach Julie Darty Dennis shared her thoughts on playing a ranked opponent in the toughest conference this early in the season.
“I’m surprised that every team in the SEC doesn’t have a number next to their name. It’s such a tough league top to bottom,” Dennis said. “So, I think for us to play the 12th best team in the country so early on and get tested that early, I mean, it’s going to get us ready for LSU, and then, we’ve got Georgia and [Texas] A&M back here next weekend.”
The first set of the match was a back-and-forth scoring battle between the teams.
Late in the set, the Volunteers darted ahead 24-18, but MSU refused to back down. The Bulldogs chipped away at the lead, but Tennessee held on, winning the set 25-22.
In set two, the Bulldogs jolted to an 8-1 lead with three points coming from  consecutive Tennessee attack errors.
However, the Volunteers refused to walk away silently. They brought the set to a three-point differential and forced MSU to take a critical timeout at 15-12. Almost instantly after the timeout break, the Lady Volunteers tied the match 15-15. Soon after the short-lived tie, Tennessee took over the lead and never looked back, taking set two, 25-19.
The third set was closely contested with both teams working relentlessly to keep the other from gaining control.
Eventually, the MSU faithful roared as the Bulldogs stole the set 25-23 by the efforts of senior Karli Schmidt and redshirt junior Amina Shackelford, who registered four or more kills each during the set.
Head coach Dennis said that the third-set win displayed what her Bulldogs are truly capable of.
“That was a really good wake up call for us to see that we are capable of playing good volleyball,” Dennis said. “We’re capable of playing with the best teams in the league.”
In the fourth set, MSU and Tennessee continued playing just as closely. Neither team could get ahead by more than two points until Tennessee took a 16-13 lead. The Volunteers never took their foot off the gas and took the set 25-17.
Head coach Dennis spoke about the challenge of forcing Tennessee into a fourth set.
“Tennessee hasn’t had to play anything more than three sets recently. They’ve just been sweeping people,” Dennis said. “So I think that for us to respond and come out like that and really push that fourth set says a lot about our potential. I think we still have a lot of room and improvements to make, but we’ve got room to grow.”
The Bulldogs registered 41 kills, 68 digs and 12 blocks over the four sets, but this was not enough to overcome the Volunteers’ performance of 63 kills, 79 digs and seven blocks.
The Volunteers’ victory slid them to a 12-1 (3-0 SEC) record as MSU dropped to 8-5 (1-2) on the season.
Mississippi State will host the University of Georgia to take on their opposing Bulldogs Friday at 6:30 p.m. The match will be broadcast on SEC Network.