Mississippi State volleyball wins 9th straight match, defeats #24 Tennessee

Dawgs Take Down Vols For Ninth Straight Win

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Volleyball) – The Mississippi State volleyball program continued its winning ways with a 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-23, 25-23) victory over No. 24 Tennessee on Saturday at The Griss for the Bulldogs’ ninth straight victory.

The win marked State’s first over a ranked opponent at home since knocking off No. 25 Kentucky in Starkville during the 2011 campaign. MSU (21-5, 12-2 SEC) moved into a tie for second in the record books for most wins in a season with the win over Tennessee (17-7, 9-5 SEC).

“We don’t talk a lot about history until after the fact, but this is definitely something to celebrate,” head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. “We were excited to come home because a lot of our big wins have been on the road. We were excited to be in front of our fans and have some home court advantage. The fans have been such a vital part of our success and we get a lot of energy from them. It was absolutely an incredible atmosphere and they kept us in the close points. This was a gutsy win over a very good Tennessee team.”

Two different Bulldogs notched double-doubles on Saturday in Lauren Myrick and Shania Cromartie, while Gabby Waden (14 kills) also reached double-digit kills for the 19th time this season. Myrick led the way with 19 kills (.333 hitting pct.) and 16 digs, while Cromartie totaled 13 kills and 13 digs on the afternoon. Thirteen of Myrick’s 19 kills came in the final two sets as State closed out the four-set victory.

The two teams were evenly matched throughout the opening set with both MSU and Tennessee hitting .225 overall to start things off. With Tennessee leading 23-21, the Bulldogs rallied to claim the next three points and regained the momentum before Waden put MSU on top 1-0 with a kill on set point.

After dropping a close second set, MSU found itself trailing 8-5 early in the third following a 4-0 run by the Vols

The Vols jumped out to an 8-5 lead over MSU early in the third, but the Dawgs battled back to take their first lead of the set at 17-16 on a Lauren Myrick kill. From there, State never trailed and captured a 2-1 lead in the match on an emphatic point won by Waden and the Dawgs.

State led from start to finish in the fourth and final set thanks in part to Myrick and Waden combining for 12 of the team’s 16 kills and both hitting over .500 in the frame.

Margaret Dean led the Dawgs with 29 assists on the afternoon, followed by Gabby Coulter who tallied 21 in the win over Tennessee. Lilly Gunter led the way with 17 digs, while Deja Robinson, Rebecca Walk and Waden each had two blocks apiece for the Bulldogs.