The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
BYU
Rebels Split Matches On Day One Of Tiger Invitational
8/28/2009 | Volleyball
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Ole Miss (1-1) split a pair of matches on the first day of the Missouri Tiger Invitational, defeating Texas State 3-0 in the first match of the day before falling to BYU 3-0 in the second match of the afternoon on Friday.
The Rebels defeated Texas State 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-23) in a morning match on the arm of sophomore Katie Norris and freshman Whitney Craven. Ole Miss then fell to BYU in the afternoon match 3-0 (24-26, 20-25, 22-25) to close out their action on the first day of the tournament.
Ole Miss will face host Missouri at noon on Saturday in the Rebels' final match of the weekend event.
"It's always great to come out of the gates and get a 3-0 win over a team that went to the NCAA Tournament last year in Texas State," said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. "This afternoon we came up against a very good and a very big BYU team that did a great job of not making errors. That's an area we are going to have to improve upon.
"We have to be able to make adjustments and we play another quality team tomorrow in Missouri. We have to be ready to come back and play again. This team has a ton of potential and we do some great things. We just have to stay consistent."
Katie Norris led the Rebels against the Cougars as she put down 17 kills on the afternoon. Senior Catilin Weiss hit .389 and tallied eight kills, while junior Miranda Kitts came up with three blocks and seven kills while hitting .312 for the match.
Sophomore libero Morgan Springer led the Ole Miss defense with 13 digs against BYU.
The first set of the match saw BYU move out to an early three-point lead before Ole Miss roared back to move in front of the Cougars 16-14. Ole Miss held the lead briefly before BYU managed to put together its own run and jump back in front of the Rebels 21-18. Again the Rebels answered, moving back out to a 24-23 lead before BYU rattled off three straight scores to claim the set 26-24.
Set two opened with the Rebels taking a 2-0 lead, but it was short-lived as BYU charged out in front 7-3 and never relinquished the lead as the Cougars claimed the second set 25-20.
The third set against BYU was a nip-and-tuck contest with the Cougars taking their largest lead of the set with a four-point lead at 17-13. Ole Miss battled back, cutting the lead to one at 23-22, but BYU notched a pair of scores to claim the match with the 25-22 win in the third set.
Ole Miss 3, Texas State 0
The Rebel volleyball team got off to a good start to the season as Ole Miss picked up a win over Texas State in the first match of the Missouri Tiger Invitational on Friday at the University of Missouri.
Sophomore outside hitter Katie Norris led the Rebels with 12 kills, while freshman outside hitter Whitney Craven added 11 kills and hit .368 for the match. Craven also added 11 digs for her first double-double of the season.
Junior setter Emily Kvitle also turned in a solid performance in the starting role as she tallied 33 assists for the three set match.
Texas State was picked to win the Southland Conference in the preseason poll of the league's coaches and is a five-time defending conference champion.
