Rebels Rally, Defeat Sacramento State 3-2 To Remain Unbeaten

OXFORD, Miss. The Rebel volleyball team continued to pull things out in the end as Ole Miss (4-0) used a late rally to stay unbeaten with a win over Sacramento State (3-2) by a score of 3-2 (30-19, 23-30, 21-30, 30-25, 15-10) on Tuesday.

Senior Katie Kramer led the Rebels with 22 kills on the night, joined by sophomore Caitlin Weiss’ 16 kill performance. Junior Emily Jones came up with 7.0 blocks on the night to go along with 5.0 blocks from junior Rachel Kieckhaefer as the Rebels out-blocked the Hornets 13-to-7. Weiss and fellow sophomore Caitlin Keefe added 4.0 blocks each.

Tara Langley led three Rebels in double-digits in digs as the senior libero posted a 22 dig performance. Nicole Mahan added 16 digs, while Kieckhaefer added 11 digs.

“We’ve been playing some good teams to open the season and that continued with a good West Coast team in Sacramento State,” said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. “They are a good team who plays with good ball control and forces you to make errors. They did that and we didn’t play well in games two and three, but we cleaned it up and pulled things out in games four and five.

“When you play good teams, you are going to see a lot of tight matches that go down to the wire,” Getzin said.

It was all Rebels in game one, as Ole Miss stormed out of the gates and never looked back on the way to a 30-19 win in the first frame. Kramer and Weiss led the way with five and four kills, respectively, while Weiss and Jones held up the front line with a combined four blocks.

Sacramento State adjusted in games two and three, pulling ahead of the Rebels with solid ball control, and a focused and steady attack that kept Ole Miss off balance. The Hornets pressed the advantage to take game two by a score of 30-23 and game three by a score of 30-21.

The Rebels fought back in the fourth frame, answering the challenge put forth by the visiting Hornets and tying the match with a 30-25 win in game four. Ole Miss stepped up the attack from all sides as Jones, Kramer and Weiss each added four kills and Keefe added two timely blocks to slow the Sacramento State attack.

The fifth game saw the Rebels take an early lead and never look back, as Ole Miss pressed the attack and stepped up the net defense. Kramer led the way with five kills in game five, while the Rebels combined for 4.0 total team blocks with six block assists and a block solo to shut down the Hornet attack.

The Rebels will return to the road over the weekend, traveling to participate in the Akron Zips Invitational. Ole Miss will face Syracuse and host Arkron on Friday before facing Wright State on Saturday.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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