The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Volleyball Falls To Alabama, 3-2
10/31/1999 | Volleyball
Oct. 31, 1999
OXFORD, Miss. -- Coming back from a two-games-to-one deficit, the Ole Miss Lady Rebel volleyball team forced Alabama to five games before losing a heartbreaker 3-2 (15-11, 14-16, 15-3, 11-15, 15-9) at the Women's Sports Complex on an overcast Halloween afternoon.
For only the third time this season, the Lady Rebels (9-16, 0-11 SEC) played to game five in a match, going 1-1 before today's loss, including a 3-2 loss to Kentucky earlier this season. For the Crimson Tide (15-11, 6-5 SEC), this was their ninth five-game match this season. They are now 3-6 overall in five-game matches and 2-3 in the SEC.
"It was nice to see us put ourselves in a position to win a Southeastern Conference match," said Ole Miss head coach John Blair. "That's all you can ask for, to get into a fifth game against a team like Alabama who has been on a roll. Alabama has been playing extremely well."
The Crimson Tide came out with the game's opening serve and struck first with two consecutive service aces. The Lady Rebel fell behind 5-0 almost immediately, but rallied to as close as 8-7 on a five-point run in the middle of the game. The Tide countered with a five-point run of their own, adding two more aces, to pull away 13-7. They went on to close out the game 15-11.
In game two, the lead went back and fourth four times. After going up 10-5, the Lady Rebels saw the Crimson Tide rally back to tie the match at 13. Alabama then served up another of its 14 service aces on the match to send the set to game point. Ole Miss rallied for the side out and tied the game 14 each. After exchanging six sideouts, the Lady Rebels scored two straight and won the match 16-14.
After the break, Ole Miss came out sluggish and the Tide took advantage. After a 1-1 tie, Alabama scored eight straight before the Lady Rebels could pick up two more. The Tide went on to roll in game three, 15-3.
With the match on the line in game four, the Lady Rebels came out hard. They battled back and fourth with the Tide throughout the game, knotting it up six times, the final coming at 11-11, before pulling away 15-11, sending the match to the decisive fifth game.
In rally scoring, the teams swapped points for the first five before Alabama managed to take the two point advantage. With the Tide in the lead, 7-6, Ole Miss faltered, allowing Alabama to spout off four consecutive and take the 11-6 lead. With the match on the line 14-7, Ole Miss held on for two more points before finally falling 15-9.
"I knew it was going to be a dog-eat-dog match because we matched up well with them from when we played them before," Blair said of the meeting with the Tide. "We played well enough at times to win but there were sometimes we didn't play well."
For the match, Alabama had six runs of five or more points, including one in the decisive fifth game. Aiding the Tide in those runs was the fact that the Lady Rebels gave up a season-high 14 service aces.
"Alabama made significant runs on us and I think that was the only difference in the match," said Blair. "I thought it was pretty good Southeastern Conference volleyball."
Senior Lauren Dorcheus led the Lady Rebels offensively with 18 kills to only four errors for her seventh above-.400 hitting percentage match of the season, posting a match high .483 on Sunday. She also combined for three block assists and a solo block against the Crimson Tide. Junior Kira Zschau was the only other Lady Rebel to post double digit kill numbers, with 14 for the match.
Defensively, sophomore Leigh Rittiner led the team with five block assists, while junior Renata Nowacki and freshman Sarah Lansden both posted double-digit dig marks, with 12 and 10 respectively.
Ole Miss will match up with LSU and Arkansas on the road next weekend as the season winds down. Now mathematically eliminated from postseason play, the Lady Rebels will try to pick up their first conference win of the season in Baton Rouge against the Lady Tigers on Friday at 7:00 p.m. before traveling to Fayetteville, Ark. to face the 21st-ranked Lady Razorbacks on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
With five matches remaining, four of which are in the conference, the Lady Rebels still hope to have a strong finish at the end of the season. "We are determined to be a better team at the end of the week than we are right now," said Blair.
Alabama 15 14 15 11 15Ole Miss 11 16 3 15 9Alabama (15-11, 6-5 SEC), Ole Miss (9-15, 0-11 SEC)
