Margaret Dean hasn’t been a member of the Mississippi State volleyball team — nor of the team’s group message — very long.
The graduate transfer from Stephen F. Austin was only officially announced as a Bulldog on April 15, but as soon as she was added to the players’ group text, Dean’s new teammates showed the friendliness the setter had come to hope for.
“They were all so welcoming,” Dean said. “I could tell they all have each other’s backs, which is so important on a team.”
After their spring training, supposed to be a “preview” of the competition they’ll see this fall, was cut short by more than a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bulldogs are raring to return to the court as soon as they can — although they don’t yet know when that will be.
“‘Whenever we can come back, we’re all in,'” captains Logan Brown and Kendall Murr have stressed to their teammates.
When that long-awaited return does eventually happen — and the Bulldogs have confidence it will — Mississippi State will boast a completely new look from a 2019 team that went 13-17 and won just two Southeastern Conference matches. Dean, Jessica Kemp from North Carolina State and Alden Willis from East Carolina are all transferring in, and Akacia Brown from Iowa highlights a five-player freshman class.
Dean, who went from playing on a 31-2 squad at SFA last year to joining a struggling SEC team, said she wouldn’t have come to Mississippi State if she wasn’t convinced the Bulldogs were ready to compete this season.
“I think there’s some really big things coming for this volleyball program,” she said.
A long time coming
Gunter, who played high school volleyball under Jen Darty, the younger sister of Mississippi State head coach Julie Darty, met Julie when she was the head coach at Jacksonville University before coming to Starkville. But Gunter wanted to make an impact at a Power Five program, and when Julie took the job at Mississippi State, it was a “game-changer” for the defensive specialist.
“When she went to MSU, I was super stoked because I wanted to play in something that’s super competitive like the SEC,” Gunter said.
Gunter is just one of the players comprising a recruiting class that was in the works for a while — a group that earned a high honorable mention from PrepVolleyball.com on its list of the top 30 in the country.
“This class, we’ve been recruiting for quite some time,” Darty said.
She was struck by the talent Cedar Falls High School (Iowa) standout Akacia Brown, at AAU club nationals in Detroit. Darty had previously coached against Brown’s sister Kaz, a standout at Kentucky, but she hadn’t seen the younger sibling take the court before.
“Then I watched her play for a while, and I was like, ‘I have not seen someone at this age hit as well as she does,'” Darty said.
The recruiting process went smoothly for Brown, who said she fit in without awkwardness at Mississippi State. Liking what she saw, she committed on her visit to Starkville.
“I went on a couple visits where the team didn’t really know how to talk to me because I was a recruit, so they didn’t want to say the wrong things,” Brown said. “At MSU, I just fit right in, and everyone was talking to me like I already went there and they already knew me. … It felt like a perfect fit.”
Brown and Detroit product Francesca McBride both joined the team for the spring semester to get the ball rolling early.
Shania Cromartie of Tallahassee, Florida — who played against Gunter in high school — and Skyler Buckley of Raleigh, North Carolina — round out the Bulldogs’ recruiting class.
“I think there’s a lot of talent there,” Gunter said. “We may not be the best, but I’m excited to kind of impact the program when we come in and just keep improving.”
Tons of transfers
While Mississippi State officially landed three transfers this offseason, the Bulldogs feel like they have four.
That’s because Logan Brown, who came over from Arkansas after the 2018 season, sat out last year and is eligible to play for the first time.
“She’s got confidence; she’s got really good experience and composure,” Darty said. “I think having somebody who had success in this conference and is used to going in and competing and winning matches is gonna be refreshing for us.”
Brown will join Dean, a fellow Texas native and a good friend. The two have known each other and played together with the Dallas Premier Volleyball Club, forming a connection that helped things line up perfectly for Dean.
In need of another setter to fill out the roster and run a 6-2 rotation in which two setters share the court, Darty turned to Dean, who played a part when the Lumberjacks “crushed” the Bulldogs two years ago. Dean’s former squad swept MSU on Sept. 15, 2018, at the North Texas Challenge in Denton, and Darty remembered it when she sought the setter.
The coach also picked up middle blocker and right-side hitter Jessica Kemp from NC State. Darty’s staff and the Wolfpack’s staff are close, so upon finding out Kemp was looking for a ‘change of pace’ for her master’s program, the player and the coach made rapid progress. Kemp was in Starkville by the start of the spring term.
“It’s always a quick process when they want to come at semester,” Darty said.
The Bulldogs’ crop of transfers is rounded out by Alden Willis, who decommitted from Jacksonville when Darty left for Mississippi State and had what the coach called “two tough seasons” at East Carolina.
While Gunter is a “calm, composed” libero, Willis is “‘rabid’ in a really exciting, fun way where you know she’s giving her all, all the time,” Darty said.
How the pieces fit
While the Bulldogs will have nine new players at their disposal when the 2020 season begins Aug. 28 with the Starkvegas Classic, they still return plenty of established talent.
Middle blocker and right-side hitter Gabby Waden led the team with 343 kills last year, and she’s back for her junior season. Sophomore outside hitter Callie Minshew (255 kills) and junior middle blocker Deja Robinson (225) also return.
The Bulldogs’ key losses included Amarrah Cooks, who graduated, and Paige Shaw, who transferred to Kansas, but Darty is confident the team’s incoming talent can cover those losses as she enters Year 3 of her tenure and of the Bulldogs’ rebuild.
The team won only three SEC matches in her first two seasons, as a relative lack of size compared to conference competition contributed to the Bulldogs’ struggles, Darty said. This offseason, the coach has taken steps to overcome that obstacle. Six Bulldogs — including McBride (6-foot-3), Kemp (6-3) and Akacia Brown (6-2) — stand six feet or taller. That’s a boon for Darty and her players alike in the difficult and physically imposing SEC.
“If you’re playing against 5-9, 5-10 kids on the other side of the net, it’s not preparing you for what you’re gonna see on a Friday or a Sunday,” Darty said. “But if in your own practice gym you’ve got a 6-3 blocker on the right side, and you’ve gotta find ways to score against that, it’s gonna replicate what Tennessee and Arkansas and Kentucky are doing a lot more realistically.”
Waden said this year’s Bulldogs are a “special group,” as established and new players alike have already discussed individual and team needs with three months to go until the start of the season.
“We’ve definitely been trying to pick the pieces up and pick each other up from last year,” she said.
While none of the Bulldogs knows when the team will be allowed to get back on the court in Starkville to start preseason workouts, Gunter said they’re ready to give everything they have as soon as they can give it.
“I think right now, since everything’s kind of up in the air, it’s hard just not knowing,” she said. “But I’m super excited. I just want to be with the team already and start playing.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.