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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Kentucky
Women's Volleyball Loses Heartbreaker To Kentucky
10/15/1999 | Volleyball
Oct. 15, 1999
OXFORD, Miss. - Led by senior Rebecca Rider, the Ole Miss Lady Rebel volleyball team fought back from a two game deficit to force a decisive fifth game before losing a heartbreaker 3-2 to Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky at home Friday night.
Ole Miss (8-10, 0-6 SEC) fell behind early, losing game one 15-3 and game two 15-7, before outlasting Kentucky in game three 16-14. The Lady Rebels stormed through game four 15-8, with Kentucky hitting only .038, to force a final game. In rally scoring in game give, Kentucky outlasted the Lady Rebels 15-9 to improve to 10-8 overall and 3-4 in the SEC.
"I think tonight, the team showed a lot of character," said Ole Miss head coach John Blair. "We got off to kind of tentative start, but we made a few rotational adjustments that seemed to wake everyone up a little bit.
"You can't really ask for a whole lot more than getting to the fifth game. The fifth game is really the game of who makes the fewer mistakes and tonight Kentucky played a real solid fifth game. We hit .211 but they hit .444."
Ole Miss' Rider led the match with 24 kills, an individual high for the Lady Rebels this season and a new career mark, surpassing her previous career high of eight kills set against Tennessee-Martin earlier this season. She also added 13 digs, for her first double-double performance of the season.
Junior Kira Zschau tied a career high with 19 kills, her 11th double digit kill total of the season. She leads the team in kills in conference matches with 75 in six matches.
"We put Rebecca in at Kira's spot and moved Kira to Jaime's spot to create better balance," Blair said about the new rotation that put Rider opposite Zschau at the outside hitter positions. "It gave Kira an opportunity to match up against their setter, which is something that we've wanted to do all along. Everyone is playing really well and I have no hesitation to put some people in there that have proven that they are ready to play."
Senior Lisa Frannino recorded two service aces to move into sole possession of third place on the Lady Rebel career list. She now has 127 career service aces, passing Chris Houck with 126 aces.
Kentucky was led by senior Katie Eiserman with 21 kills and 17 digs. She moved into fifth place in the all-time Wildcat kill list. Freshman Kristen Batt and junior Megan Weiskircher also provided the Wildcats with some offensive powe,r combining for 29 kills.
After fighting back and forcing Kentucky to a fifth game, Blair hopes the team is building momentum heading into the second half of the conference schedule.
The Lady Rebels now face Tennessee on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Oxford. The game will be taped by College Sports Southeast for delayed broadcast on Oxford cable next Thursday. Tennessee is 12-8 overall and 5-2 in the SEC after defeating Mississippi State Friday night in Starkville. Ole Miss is looking for their first victory over the Lady Vols since 1995.
"I don't know if tonight will make that big of a turnaround in our season, but you've got to hope it will," said Blair. "Maybe we will come out against Tennessee just where we left off tonight.
"Tennessee is a carbon copy of Kentucky. They are very athletic but not great volleyball players. Kentucky may be a little more polished but Tennessee is bigger. We are basically going to see Kentucky again on Sunday wearing orange uniforms."
Kentucky 15 15 14 8 15Ole Miss 3 7 16 15 9Kentucky (10-8, 3-4 SEC), Ole Miss (8-10, 0-6 SEC)
