University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
19-6 (5-5)SEC
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Mississippi State
13-10 (3-7)SEC
Vols Rally from Brink in 5 Setter over MSU
October 25, 2015 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Tennessee Volunteers rallied from the brink to drive past Mississippi State 3-2 (17-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16, 15-7) on Sunday at the Newell-Grissom Building.
Weathering uneven play for much of the first three sets, the Vols (19-5, 5-5 SEC) came back from two sets to none and eight points down in the third set, crossing into the second half of their SEC schedule with their third five-set win of the season.
Senior setter Lexi Dempsey (37 assists, 10 digs) and sophomore right side hitter Kanisha Jimenez (12 kills, 10 digs) both recorded double-doubles for Tennessee. Junior libero Bridgette Villano had 25 digs to lead the UT passers.
Mississippi State (13-10, 3-7), paced by Evie Grace Singleton's 17 kills and 14 digs, dropped to 1-1 in five set matches this year.
It is Tennessee's first comeback from losing the first two sets since a win over Georgia on Oct. 2, 2012. Tennessee returns home for two matches next weekend at Thompson-Boling Arena, hosting LSU on Friday at 7 p.m. and Texas A&M on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Trailing by as many as eight points early in the third set, Tennessee swung the momentum late. From 23-21 down, sophomore Claudia Coco entered the match to serve. She prolonged one point for Tennessee with a lunging, one-armed save in the backcourt off a hard attack and helped the Vols win three points to produce a 24-23 lead.
Mississippi State saved the first set point but not the second. MSU's Chelsea Duhs sailed a ball above the block and long and the Vols took the set 26-24.
"The first turning point in the match was Claudia Coco digging a hard-line shot and her serving," Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick said. "The second thing that happened was as a team we competed harder. Even when we were down in the third set, the thing I noticed was that the energy in our voice and the effort. It never wavered. Once we got momentum on our side, we were playing to win a little harder."
The Vols maintained their level in the final two sets, rolling away with the fourth set 25-16 to force a deciding set for the second time in three matches. Tennessee jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the fifth set and never looked back. A pair of Mississippi State errors ended the match at 15-7.
Tennessee's defense buckled down in the closing sets. After giving up eight aces in the first two sets, the Vols' back row only surrendered one in the last three sets.
The Vols also out-blocked Mississippi State, 10-8. Erica Treiber led the way with seven blocks to go with seven kills. Raina Hembry had a team-leading 13 kills and three blocks from the middle blocker position. Jimenez added five blocks.
"You have to credit our back court passers defending the serve," Patrick said. "They took care of the ball after those first two sets. I thought our block did a good job. They run a fast offense and put up pressure on all our blockers. They worked really hard to follow the game plan."
Singleton was the difference-maker for Mississippi at the outset. On Singleton's serve, MSU went on a 5-0 run to open up the set with a nine-point lead at 21-13. She had five kills and five aces in the first set to lead the Bulldogs to a 25-17 win in the set. Tennessee hit just .037 in the first set with seven kills.
Mississippi State took a two-set lead on a second set that came down to the wire. The Vols took a 23-21 lead on a couple errors by Mississippi State. The Bulldogs responded by winning the last four points of the set. An ace set up match point and a block off an attack by Jimenez delivered the set, 25-23.
After winning the comeback third set, the Vols kept the pressure up to start the fourth set, opening up to a 10-4 lead and pulling away from there. The Vols closed out the set on a 3-0 run to send the match into a deciding fifth set. The Vols hit .325 in the set while MSU were held to just .100.
Though Mississippi State registered 59 kills, the team also committed 35 errors. The Vols had 50 kills but just 19 errors, hitting .212 as a squad.
