STARKVILLE — Mississippi State can take solace in becoming the first Southeastern Conference team to win a set against No. 12 Tennessee. But although the Bulldogs were competitive in all four sets Friday evening, the Volunteers’ firepower was too much in the end.

“Tennessee hasn’t had to play anything more than three sets recently. They’ve just been sweeping people,” MSU head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. “For us to respond and come out like that says a lot about our potential. We still have a lot of room and improvement to make, and we saw some glimpses of really great stuff tonight.”

The teams traded blows in the first set, but the Volunteers were on the verge of putting it away after they scored five straight points to bring up set point at 24-18. Thanks to a pair of blocks by Amina Shackelford and a kill by Sophie Agee, though, MSU (8-5, 1-2 SEC) stayed alive by staving off four set points before Tennessee (12-1, 3-0) closed it out.

The Bulldogs built on that strong finish to the opening set by getting off to a scorching-hot start in the second, with back-to-back kills by Agee staking them to an 8-1 lead. MSU led 12-4 when the Volunteers — whose only loss of the season was a five-set road defeat to No. 1 Wisconsin — began working their way back.

“We came out in the first set, guns blazing, and we held steady,” said Agee, who finished with 11 kills and nine digs. “I’m really proud of the product we put out tonight. Obviously I wish it would have been in our favor, but I’m glad we have this momentum.”

A six-point Tennessee run tied the set at 15, and after the Bulldogs briefly gathered themselves, the Volunteers took eight of the last nine points for a two-sets-to-none lead. Tennessee had three players in double figures in kills, led by Jenaisya Moore’s 18, and setter Caroline Kerr orchestrated the offense with 43 assists.

After letting the second set slip away, MSU rebounded to win a back-and-forth third set that was tied on 16 different occasions before the Bulldogs created a bit of separation. Karli Schmidt had five of her 11 kills in the set, and Agee finished it off by putting home one of Emily Oerther’s 21 assists.

“We’ve got some potential that we just tapped into that was really a good wake-up call for us,” Darty Dennis said. “We’re capable of playing with the best teams in the league. The effort was there, the energy, the enthusiasm, the execution. We stuck to the game plan for as long as we could.”

MSU fell behind early in the fourth set but again gave the Volunteers all they could handle, rallying to briefly take an 11-10 lead. After that, the Bulldogs could never win even two points in a row as Tennessee pulled away with a late 6-0 run.

It will be a quick turnaround for MSU as the Bulldogs hit the road for a battle with LSU on Sunday.

“I’m excited to have a chance to go on the road against another physical, talented SEC team,” Darty Dennis said. “We’re going to go in with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder and something to prove.”