If the Mississippi State volleyball team is trying to cut down on attention drawn to the fact that the team is filled with nine freshmen, last Sunday was the first big step in the process.
The Bulldogs (6-8, 1-2 SEC) toppled the Auburn Tigers (5-9, 0-3 SEC) by a 3-2 score Sunday, giving the Maroon and White its first conference win on the season.
This weekend, the Bulldogs will seek to ride that momentum against South Carolina (11-2, 3-1 SEC) and Florida (10-1, 4-0), two teams near the top of the SEC standings.
The Bulldogs and Gamecocks serve it up tonight at 7 p.m. and MSU tussles with the Gators Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
MSU fifth-year head coach Tina Seals said there was one main thing she was satisfied with in the Auburn win.
“What I liked the most is that I saw our upperclassmen step up,” Seals said. “When the match was 2-2, they could have very easily given up in the fifth set. We had lost in five sets at least twice before. They didn’t, though. They stepped up and played hard and got the win.”
The team was led offensively against Auburn by junior outside hitter Ioana Demian, who tallied a career-high and match-high 22 kills. Demian, of Baia Mare, Romania, has tallied a team-high 145 kills on the season, as well as 111 digs, good enough for second on the team.
Demian said she believes the formula for the win over Auburn was simple.
“Everybody did their job,” Demian said. “That’s the only difference [in how we played]. Everyone played their part.”
Freshman hitter Faith Steinwedell said the team is hoping to slip up and surprise South Carolina and Florida this weekend.
“We’re the underdogs,” Steinwedell said. “No one expects us to win, but I think we’re going to use that to our advantage. We may not get the ‘W,’ but we’re certainly not going to go down without a fight.”
The Bulldogs face two of their toughest opponents this weekend in the Gamecocks and Gators. Last season, MSU fell to the two teams by a total combined score of 12-1, winning the only game in Starkville against South Carolina.
MSU last defeated South Carolina in 2006. The Bulldogs have never taken a victory over Florida in 32 matches. In fact, the Bulldogs have never won more than one set in a match against the Gators and have not won a set since 2005.
The two SEC East foes will provide quite a challenge for the Bulldogs, but Seals said the team isn’t worried about it.
“We’re just taking one day at a time,” Seals said. “We’re focused on South Carolina right now, and come Saturday morning, we’ll focus on Florida.”