TUPELO – After losing its groove for a set, Tupelo quickly regained it Tuesday night.
The No. 7-ranked Golden Wave finished strong, beating No. 6 Starkville 3-1 (25-17, 25-15, 17-
25, 25-16) to remain atop the Region 2-7A standings. That avenged a loss to the Yellow Jackets
in a tournament at Caledonia 10 days earlier.
Tupelo (12-6-1, 4-0) was crisp through the first two sets before getting sloppy in the third. But
the Wave regained their composure and polished off Starkville (12-5-1, 2-2).
“Once the energy’s up, you can’t stop us at all,” outside hitter Kennedi Simmons said. “I think it
was just energy.”
Simmons, a junior, finished with a game-high 13 kills. Her final two spikes clinched the match for
Tupelo.
The Golden Wave had 39 kills to Starkville’s 28. Loren Zimmeran had nine, while Kinslee Carter
and Cat Long had six each.
“In the last set I was like, ‘I just need to get a few more kills.’ That’s all that was running through
my mind, honestly,” Simmons said.
After committing just seven unforced errors through the first two sets, Tupelo had 11 in the third.
The Jackets happily capitalized, opening up a 21-15 lead en route to extending the match.
Tupelo was trailing 11-9 in the fourth set but went on a 6-0 run to regain the lead. Back-to-back
kills by Long helped the Wave extend the lead further.
On the whole, Tupelo did a brilliant job answering Starkville at the net.
“We’ve heard all season how much better Starkville is than they’ve been in the past, and the
girls were really worried,” Tupelo coach Laura Booth said. “But we had a game plan. We knew,
in the tournament their middles were tipping on us everywhere. We’ve been working on it for
about a week, trying to pick up those tips, and we did a much better job tonight.”
Mamie Shettles had 18 assists for Tupelo, and Sophie Mulrooney had 13.
Starkville got eight kills from Campbell Davis. The Jackets didn’t help themselves, committing 11
service errors.
“They had some good connections. They have some really good hitters,” Starkville coach
Meghan Slattery said of Tupelo. “I feel like it really came down us making a lot of errors at the
end that allowed them to get back in the game.”
Both teams face region foes again on Thursday: Tupelo visits Madison Central, and Starkville
hosts Germantown.
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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 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
