STARKVILLE – The scene looked all too familiar at the Newell-Grissom Building in late August.
The Mississippi State University volleyball team had lost its first game 30-28 to an unheralded Sun Belt Conference school in their season opening tournament.
For Bulldogs head coach Jenny Hazelwood and her youthful roster, Saturday afternoon’s result was a pleasant change of pace. The Bulldogs went on to win the next three games over the University of Louisiana at Monroe 25-18, 25-18, 25-18 in relatively dominant fashion to remain undefeated in the 2012 MSU Maroon Classic.
The momentum did not last as the Bulldogs later lost to Kennesaw State in the tournament championship match late Saturday night.
Last season MSU (2-1) was 2-15 when they lost the first game of a match and never rebounded to win in four games.
“Look at that – already turning over new leafs this season,” Hazelwood said with a laugh when informed of the previous statistic. “We started five out of seven players after that first game loss and they did a great job of being so resilient.”
Part of the comeback effort for this MSU squad might be contributed to the idea that these freshman simply don’t have any negative memories to fall back on from previous seasons.
“We, as freshman, don’t know about anything of what happened last year or in previous seasons and so it doesn’t affect us at all,” Scott said. “We’re not trying to rewrite and change anything of what happened because we just don’t care.”
Scott finished the match with a 20-20 double-double effort with a team-high 21 kills and 23 defensive digs to showcase her multifaceted skill set. Scott, a highly coveted recruit out of California, has totaled 34 kills in her first two collegiate matches.
In Friday night’s season opener, Scott had 13 kills in a dominating three-game victory over Jackson State University 25-9, 25-9, 25-17 in front of 1,605 fans, which is the second-largest volleyball attendance at the Newell-Grissom.
“You always have to be nervous before a match because those nervous jitters help me focus on the task at hand,” Scott said. “I hope I feel that way all the time.”
During a critical timeout in the second game, Hazelwood stood up and spoke to just her junior setter and co-captain Paris Perret. After that intermission, MSU ran off seven of the final 11 points to knot the match at one game a piece.
Perret, a player who Hazelwood has pointed to as the player that could lead the Bulldogs to being a relevant Southeastern Conference program, finished Saturday with 45 assists and 17 defensive digs.
“With our team being so young, it’s my job to keep everybody steady and that leaves no room for me to make errors and so I understand when she expects me to be perfect,” Perret said. “It’s an expectation that is extremely fair because it’s what our team requires.”
Even without the services of Lainey Wyman, a 2011 All-SEC freshman team selection, the middle of the court was wide open from ULM blockers and freshman Sarah Nielsen took advantage with 16 kills.
Wyman is benched this weekend for a violation of team but will likely add another element to the Bulldogs offense when she returns from suspension.
“Teams are going to get really frustrated about who to take away when Lainey returns because then we’ll have two solid middles along with two talented outside hitters,” Hazelwood said.
In the championshp match, Kennesaw State won 23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25 and 15-11.
For MSU, freshman libero Roxanne McVey set a new school record with 42 digs.
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