STARKVILLE — Mississippi State was in position to take the first set in a critical Southeastern Conference home match against Georgia on Friday night.

Coming off back-to-back losses to Tennessee and LSU last weekend, MSU led by as many as seven points in the opening set against a UGA team that came into Newell-Grissom Building winless in SEC play. But Georgia won 12 of the final 16 points to steal the set, then never trailed in either of the next two on its way to a sweep.

“We’ve seen that a lot this season where we either start really hot or we find momentum late,” Mississippi State head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. “But we have to be a consistent team for three sets in a row, and we’re just trying to figure it out. We didn’t have a lot of offensive firepower; we weren’t blocking a lot of balls. Georgia came out hard and fast, and they were really pushing us and we didn’t really push back.”

MSU (8-7, 1-4 SEC) is still without one of its top blockers in Zoe Gonzales, a graduate transfer who previously played at Wake Forest and Jacksonville State. Gonzales missed her fourth consecutive match as she continues to deal with an ankle injury, and UGA’s attack was able to pierce State’s block throughout the match.

Georgia (10-6, 1-3) may have entered the night at the bottom of the SEC standings, but it owns a victory over then-No. 10 Georgia Tech in non-conference play and pushed ranked Florida and Kentucky teams to a fifth set.

After storming back in the first set, Georgia came out scorching hot in the second, taking the first seven points. UGA’s serving let MSU hang around — Georgia had eight service errors in the second set, and State cut its deficit to 23-20 — but the visitors closed it out from there.

“Georgia goes fast,” Darty Dennis said. “They hit it hard, they’re not going to hold back, and we were just kind of soft. We let them just hit at us. Their speed definitely got the best of us tonight.”

State hit just .156 as a team, its lowest hitting percentage in SEC play. Sophie Agee led MSU with seven kills, Rebecca Walk added six and Sanaa Williams chipped in with five. But the two setters, Emily Oerther and Alexa Fortin Goede, struggled at times to generate offense and had just 21 assists between them.

UGA pulled away in the third set as its two best offensive players, Sophie Fischer and Kacie Evans, found their rhythm. State hung around and tied the set at 12 points apiece before Georgia went on an 8-1 run, which Fischer started with three straight kills.

Fischer had eight kills in the set and 16 overall while hitting an efficient .448. Evans had seven of her 12 kills in the third set, including the clincher on match point. Setter Clara Brower consistently delivered perfect balls for that dynamic duo, finishing with 39 assists.

“We need to have a serious conversation about how hard every team in this league is,” Darty Dennis said. “I don’t know if (we thought), ‘Georgia’s 0-3, we can beat them with our eyes closed,’ but the SEC is tough top to bottom, and we have to be better.”

MSU needs no serious conversation about the quality of its next opponent. State is right back in action Sunday at home against Texas A&M, which defeated Darty Dennis’ team in straight sets in the SEC opener on Sept. 20.

“We have to be dialed in and ready to go for a really good Texas A&M team,” Darty Dennis said. “We have another opportunity here at home, and it’s the second time we’ve seen A&M, so we know a little bit more about them. We want revenge.”