Bulldogs Fall to No. 18 Kentucky At Home Friday

Friday, October 5

Starkville

7:00 PM

Mississippi State

5-12 (1-3SEC)

Kentucky

10-4, (4-0SEC)

Kentucky

Mississippi State

MSU falls to No. 18 UK in three on Friday

Photo by: Trevor Birchett/MSU Athletics

Bulldogs Fall to No. 18 Kentucky At Home Friday

October 05, 2018 | Volleyball

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by Mary Catherine Molay, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE- A powerful offensive attack by No 18 Kentucky proved to be too much for the Mississippi State volleyball team on Friday night in Newell-Grissom.

The Bulldogs (5-12, 1-3 SEC) fell to Wildcats (10-4, 4-0 SEC) in three, 11-25, 10-25, 13-25.

"Kentucky is a really good team, and I think they brought their A-[game] consistently," head coach Julie Darty said. "They're super talented, and they handle the ball well. The things that we are supposed to do; pass the ball, be super tough in transition, I don't think we executed those things tonight. I think we're a little bit on our heels and looked a little timid. We weren't the same team we saw against Auburn. I really hope that we can have a short-term memory on this, [because tomorrow] we have to get on a plane tomorrow and go play Tennessee on Sunday. It's a long season, [but we have to have] tunnel vision [in preparing for] our next opponent."

Kentucky started the match a kill and the two teams sat even at 4-4 after a kill from MSU's Khristian Carr. The Wildcats countered by going on a seven-point run to build a 11-4 cushion. After that, Mississippi State's .120 hitting percentage was no match for Kentucky's .407 attacking percentage, as the Wildcats went on to win the set. Paige Shaw had two kills and one dig. Alleah Stamatis and Morgan Kath handed out three assists apiece. Kath and Kendall Murr both had four digs.

Set two started with Kentucky going up 4-0. As in the first set, Mississippi State struggled to stop the Wildcats' attack game and compounded that with five attack errors on 24 swings (four kills) for a minus-.042 hitting percentage. Kentucky went on to take the second set, 25-10. Shaw and Deja Robinson had four kills apiece. Kath added five more digs. Amarrah Cooks and Brooklyn Lochner both had three block assists.

Mississippi State came out and was neck-and-neck with Kentucky for the beginning of set three. The Bulldogs went on a three-point streak that included a service ace from Taylor Haskins to take the lead, 7-6. From that point on, Mississippi State was still unable to stop the attack game of UK, as the Wildcats hit. 824 for the set, with 14 kills on 17 errorless swings.

Mississippi State caps off the weekend on the road in Knoxville against Tennessee. First serve is set for 12:30 p.m. CT on the SECNetwork+.

Dawg Bites from Friday

Robinson had seven kills and posted a .308 hitting percentage
Shaw had five kills and three digs
Kath tallied 15 assists and four digs
Haskins and Stamatis both had one service ace
Murr led the team with six digs

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