The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Arkansas St
Lady Rebels Drop Frustrating Match To Arkansas State 3-0
9/21/2004 | Volleyball
Sept. 21, 2004
Box Score
JONESBORO, Ark. - Ole Miss took to the road on Tuesday for its final match before conference play and ran into a steamroller in an Arkansas State team on a hot streak, as the Lady Rebels fell to Arkansas State 3-0 (28-30, 24-30, 25-30).
Kristen Carroll led the Lady Rebels with 13 kills on the night, the only Ole Miss player to reach double digits in kills. Nikki Hill and Jaclyn Toohey came up with 11 and 10 digs, respectively.
The most telling stat of the night was the 18 points Ole Miss gave up on service reception errors and service errors. Ole Miss had 10 service errors and eight receiving errors on the night.
"This is a wake up call," said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. "We're a young team, but that's not an excuse for us to lose our focus. We have to be in control, and when we do that, we can be a good team. We have to learn to fight back when things are rough."
Arkansas State opened up the first game with a score, as the Indian attack ricocheted off the hands of the Ole Miss blockers. The home team continued to push ahead of the Lady Rebels, taking a 4-0 lead before a Nikki Hill attack would slam to the floor. Ole Miss fought back, cutting the lead to one at 9-8, but Arkansas State pushed back ahead before the Lady Rebels took the lead 13-11 lead and forced the Indians into a timeout.
The Lady Rebels continued to push ahead of the Indians, taking a 21-13 lead, but the home team fought back into the match, forcing Ole Miss to call a timeout with the lead trimmed to one at 24-23.
Arkansas State tied the match up out of the break, regaining the lead at 26-25 after a run, and the point trading continued between the teams. The Indians pushed ahead by two on the next attack, and closed out the first game with a 30-28 win.
Ole Miss claimed the first point of game two, taking a 3-0 lead out of the gates before Arkansas State would tie the match on three straight scores. The Lady Rebels pushed back out to a two-point lead, and the teams traded scores from there until the Indians took the lead 7-6. The point swapping began again.
The lead went back to the Lady Rebels and extended to a two-point edge, but again the Indians fought back to cut the lead to one at 13-12. Hill picked the team up again, recording several kills in a row to push Ole Miss out to a 17-12 advantage and force Arkansas State into a timeout.
The five-point edge held briefly, but the Indians began to chip away and force Getzin to call an Ole Miss timeout with the score at 19-16. The Lady Rebels pushed ahead again coming out of the break, but the Indians again cut back into the lead, tying the match at 24 and pushing the Lady Rebels into another timeout.
Arkansas State rattled off a five-point rally out of the timeout, as five straight Ole Miss errors handed the Indians the second game 30-24.
The Indians snatched the first point of the third game on a tip that sailed harmlessly over the heads of the Ole Miss blockers. Arkansas State continued on a four-point run to take a 4-0 lead before the Lady Rebels would get on the board. With the Indians up 9-5, the Lady Rebels finally came to life as the strong arm of Jaclyn Toohey hammered two-straight kills. But, the home team would maintain a three-point edge.
A big block from Tricia Eble cut the lead to one, as she took an Indian attack and slammed it back down to the floor. The Lady Rebels tied the match at 12 on the next point, and took the lead 13-12 on another big block from Eble.
The Indians weren't done, tying the match on a big block and retaking the lead on a deep kill that hit home in the corner of the court. The two squads traded scores before Arkansas State edged ahead by two at 17-15 on a service ace and pushed Ole Miss into a timeout.
Ole Miss made its move down 23-17, cutting the lead to three-points at 24-21, but it was too little too late, as the Indians claimed the third game and the match with a 30-25 win in game three.
The road will not get easier for the Lady Rebels as the match with Arkansas State opened a stretch of two weeks on the road for Ole Miss.
"We're going up against two very good teams on the road this weekend," Getzin said. "We have got to do a better job of responding to pressure that other teams put on us. We have to realize that we are good enough to do that."
Ole Miss will continue to play on the road this weekend when the Lady Rebels open Southeastern Conference play at No. 24 Tennessee. Ole Miss will take on the nationally-ranked Lady Vols at 7 p.m. on Friday then travel to take on South Carolina at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
