STARKVILLE — Those in attendance at the Newell-Grissom Building on Friday yelled their approval when Mississippi State’s Gabby Waden matched Kentucky’s Maddy Skinner with an equally emphatic kill.
It was just two points into Friday’s match, but the Bulldogs seemingly looked like they could hang with the No. 2 team in the nation.
Then Kentucky showed why it had earned that ranking.
The Wildcats won the next seven points to build a commanding 8-1 lead, went on to take the set and soon finished a sweep of Mississippi State in Friday’s match in Starkville. Set scores were 25-15, 25-12 and 25-16.
“I think we got a little shell shocked at times about how good and polished Kentucky is,” Mississippi State head coach Julie Darty Dennis said. “We played certain stretches really well, and execution was really good at those times, but we were kind of going back to the streakiness that we were trying to get away from for us to compete and stay in matches with really good teams. We have got to be a better offensive team.”
The Bulldogs fell to 2-5 on the season after huge upset wins over No. 7 Texas A&M last week in College Station, Texas. Mississippi State had never beaten the Aggies before.
“I think it was one of those small milestones that we talk about a lot in the locker room about building a culture and a program that we can be proud of,” Darty Dennis said.
But the Bulldogs weren’t able to build on it against Kentucky on Friday, as they posted a poor hitting percentage. Mississippi State hit just .042 compared to Kentucky’s .357 mark.
“We have to have more arms that can score, and to hit that low of an efficiency isn’t gonna get you enough points,” Darty Dennis said. “I think from the service line, we also have to be a lot cleaner if we are getting after it like it looks like we are with eight errors. I think we have to have a lot more aces than we put up today, so I think there are a lot of things we’ve got to kind of clean up overnight.”
Waden led Mississippi State with eight kills, Deja Robinson had seven, and Callie Minshew had six. For Kentucky, Skinner had 12 kills, Alli Stumler had 10, and Azhani Tealer had nine.
Saturday: Kentucky 3, Mississippi State 0
Mississippi State was swept again by Kentucky on Saturday in Starkville. Set scores were 25-17, 25-17 and 25-16.
This weekend’s matches were originally scheduled for Thursday and Friday before being postponed by a day because of COVID-19 contact tracing within the Wildcats’ program.
But Darty Dennis said after Friday’s match that the delay didn’t really affect the Bulldogs’ performance.
“I think it gave us another day to practice some defensive stuff and serve and pass, and I don’t think that that had anything to do with the product that we put out there,” the coach said. “It’s one of those things where we had a day to kinda figure out some lineup stuff, and, if we had to play yesterday, we might have been a little bit more surprised.”
Darty Dennis said she was just happy her team has gotten to play so far with the uncertainty that surrounded the beginning of the season in October.
“We just want to make sure that this fall season ends on a high note and that the girls are excited about some milestones that we set as a program this fall,” she said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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