Julie Darty Dennis told her team in the spring not to go inside the locker room.
There was construction going on in there, Mississippi State’s head coach said, and she was worried her players might get hurt.
It wasn’t until early August that the Bulldogs found out the real reason the locker room was off limits. The team let out a collective shriek upon seeing its brand new clubhouse for the first time, complete with photos and name plates above each player’s locker.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable. We’re very lucky to have such a great space for just our team,” fifth-year senior outside hitter Karli Schmidt said. “Julie was very nonchalant about it, trying to keep it under wraps. It was just a really great surprise to start our preseason with a brand new locker room, because we all had no idea this was going to happen.”
But facilities, of course, don’t win games or championships. Players do, and while MSU’s players might have more of an incentive to spend time together now, the Bulldogs have an uphill climb to contention in an already-tough Southeastern Conference that just got tougher with the additions of Oklahoma and two-time defending national champion Texas.
MSU has a trio of returning fifth-year frontline players in Schmidt, Rebecca Walk and Amina Shackelford. Schmidt struggled to carve a role for herself in three years at Kansas, but in her first season in Starkville last fall, she led the Bulldogs with 301 kills and 3.34 points per set, and said it was an easy decision to come back for her final year of eligibility.
“This team makes it really easy. I always feel so supported here,” Schmidt said. “It’s easy for me to feel confident out there on the floor. I just find a lot of joy in competing at this point. With this transition, I still have a chip on my shoulder. I still have a lot of goals, and I’m really excited to see how I can do that with this team going forward through this season.”
Shackelford and Walk were also reliable offensive options for the Bulldogs, but their second-leading attacker, Sophie Agee, transferred to Alabama. So Darty Dennis brought in five new faces in the transfer portal herself, including junior Arianna Beckham (Florida Atlantic) and fifth-year senior Kailin Newsome (Southeastern Louisiana) — both of whom led their respective teams in kills in 2023.
MSU also added Mele Corral-Blagojevich after her freshman year at Oklahoma, grad transfer Kennedy Davis from Tennessee State and Cecilia Harness from North Texas. Harness started 30 of the Mean Green’s 33 games last year as the setter and may have the inside track to start for the Bulldogs, considering Emily Oerther and Alexa Fortin Goede have both exhausted their eligibility.
Darty Dennis said she is also excited about freshman Cayley Hanson at setter, and sophomore Mary Neal has also impressed Darty Dennis in the preseason and is likely the starting libero.
“The biggest priorities were just building and putting together a roster,” Darty Dennis said. “We had eight players in the spring, so we had a really small group, but it allowed us to really put a huge amount of work in with that group. Each of them individually got a ton better.”
MSU is coming off a ninth-place finish in the SEC, going 13-15 overall and 6-12 in conference play. The Bulldogs upset a ranked Florida team at home, but lost five of their first six conference matches and had a late-season stretch of four consecutive three-set defeats. The SEC sent eight teams to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and that does not include the national champion Longhorns, who came over from the Big 12 this summer.
Darty Dennis is scheduling a lighter non-conference slate, with just nine matches instead of the maximum 12, but MSU still has some big opportunities early. After an exhibition match Saturday at Memphis, the Bulldogs open the season at Samford and Alabama-Birmingham, then host Michigan on Sept. 6 and Notre Dame on Sept. 8 in the StarkVegas Classic.
“I didn’t want to give them a break. I want them to be seasoned and ready, and we wanted to get battle-tested before we open (conference play),” Darty Dennis said. “I’ve got some older bodies and we’re going to try and get some really quality matches in there. We’re excited. It’s a great schedule.”
Following the first two home games, MSU will battle Tulane, Louisiana-Monroe and Grambling State in New Orleans, then returns home for two matches against Southern Miss before opening SEC play on Sept. 27 at South Carolina. Highlights of the home SEC schedule include a rivalry matchup with Ole Miss on Oct. 23 and a visit from the reigning champs on Nov. 6.
“We’re obviously looking forward to having the national champions in our gym in Starkville and bringing some more people into our gym, whether they’re there to see us or Texas,” Walk said. “Anyone can win on any given night in the SEC, and that’s shown the past couple years, just how tough our conference has gotten. We’re really excited to have so many opportunities to beat really good teams and play a tough schedule night in and night out.”
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