The Bulldogs entered their final week of action, as the volleyball Dogs took on the University of Mississippi in a two-game, intrastate and conference series. The Bulldogs traveled to Oxford on Sunday looking for the series sweep of the Rebs, but the sweep would fall short, as the Rebels, down two games, came back and beat the Dogs 3-2. MSU claimed the first two games 30-26 and 35-33, but UM returned from the break to tie the match with a pair of hard-fought 30-28 wins and then prevailed in the fifth game 21-19. The loss ended the chances for a school-record, three-match SEC winning streak.
“I’m proud of the way our team competed today,” Bulldog head coach Brenda Bowlin said. “It was an exciting match that both teams wanted to win.” In the loss, sophomore Tanika Taylor fell within one point of the school record for kills in a match. Taylor finished the night with a career best performance of 31 kills to lead the Bulldogs, as junior Misty Hubenthal added in a season-high 21 kills.
Sophomores Jennifer Rousey and Hilary Chambers had 15 kills each. Rousey had a career-high and team season-high nine blocks while Chambers’ kills were a career-best.
MSU opened up on Thursday night hosting the Rebels on senior night at Newell-Grissom honoring seniors Michele Gordon, Dawn Steinhauser, Emily Mounger and Katie Carraro. This set the tone as the Bulldogs prepared to close out the home regular season stretch.
MSU jumped out early on Mississippi with a 14-9 start. MSU pushed the lead out to a 20-12 lead, just to go on a 10-3 run to close the door on the Rebels, winning game one, 30-15. Mississippi returned the favor in game two. The Rebels opened up with a 9-2 start, increasing their lead to 20-9 and finally finishing off the Bulldogs 30-14. The two teams went into the intermission dead locked at one game each.
In the third game, the two teams battled out an evenly fought game, but the Bulldogs stood on top at the end, winning the game 30-21. The fourth and final stanza saw a similar battle from the third game, with both teams swapping points and the score tied five times. The Bulldogs pushed out of a 28-all tie, to take the match 30-28.
“This was a crazy match,” Bowlin said. “We took it to them in the first game; they took it to us in the second game, and then we battled it out the rest of the way. Misty (Hubenthal), Hilary (Chambers) and Jenn (Rousey) had outstanding games for us, and I was especially pleased to see our seniors step up the way they did tonight.”
Hubenthal led the team with 12 kills on the night, Rousey added 11 kills and Chambers tacked on 9 kills. Steinhauser had a career-high 10 kills and her first career double-double adding in 15 digs.