The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Wrap Up Successful Volleyball Season In 2010
12/17/2010 | Volleyball
Dec. 17, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. - The Rebel volleyball team wrapped up another outstanding season recently as Ole Miss posted a 19-11 record on the year and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third time, while producing the first All-America selection in program history.
The NCAA Tournament berth was also the program's third in the past five seasons under head coach Joe Getzin as the Rebels traveled to the West Coast for the third time. This time, Ole Miss faced North Carolina from the ACC in the first round, falling to the Tar Heels to end the 2010 campaign.
It was a season of firsts in some ways for the Rebels and one that has the stage set for a bright future at the Gillom Center in Oxford. With only two seniors departing from this year's squad and a bevy of young talent returning that includes 10 players who were freshman or sophomores in 2010, the Rebels look poised to make another run in 2011.
"We took another step with the program this year in the sense of how we did it this year," said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. "We lost several key players from last year's squad, but we were able to manufacture wins and finish fourth in the conference. Advancing to the NCAA tournament was one of our goals. We were a very young team, but we were very talented. The coaching staff and players are excited about what lies in front of us. We realize there is a lot of hard work ahead to make the next level."
The Rebels finished the year fourth in the Southeastern Conference overall standings and second in the Western Division standings with a balanced offensive and defensive effort. The play of junior middle blocker Regina Thomas paced the squad for much of the season.
Thomas was named a first team All-SEC selection by the league's coaches despite missing the final seven matches of the year after tearing her ACL. She was the first Rebel selected for first team All-SEC honors since the 1990 season and recently was tabbed for All-Region honors by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Most recently, she became the first All-American in program history when she was named to the honor by the AVCA on Wednesday.
Thomas ranks seventh nationally in hitting percentage at .421 and is one of only two players among the top seven in the nation who is not competing in the Final Four. Thomas also averaged 1.16 blocks per set this year to put her among the SEC's leaders in blocks.
The Rebels opened the season by winning the Rice Invitational and saw three players garner All-Tournament honors as Miranda Kitts and Allegra Wells were named to the All-Tournament team along with Thomas as the MVP. The Rebels then stumbled, dropping a pair of matches in a three-match weekend at the Northwestern Challenge before returning home to sweep through the Magnolia Invitational to claim the event for the fourth straight season.
The wins in the home tournament seemed to right the ship for the Rebels who again placed three on the All-Tournament team with Kitts claiming MVP honors along with All-Tournament selections Ashley Veach and Thomas. Morgan Springer was named to the All-Tournament team at the Northwestern Challenge after a solid weekend of defensive play from the junior libero.
The Rebels then turned their sights on Southeastern Conference play, opening league competition with a bang as Ole Miss swept Alabama and beat Mississippi State in a televised match to go 2-0 in the opening SEC weekend and run their win streak to seven matches.
The next two weekends featured splits as the Rebels fell to nationally-ranked foes Tennessee and Florida on the road, but picked up wins at Kentucky and South Carolina. Ole Miss then returned home to start a new win-streak. The Rebels rattled off seven-consecutive wins again, including a shutout of No. 12 LSU to surge to the top of the SEC Western Division standings.
The Rebels went on to post series sweeps of Mississippi State, Alabama, Georgia and Auburn in the second half of the season before ending the season against North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.
