The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Finish Non-Conference on High Note
9/20/2014 | Volleyball, Blog
The Ole Miss Volleyball team remained undefeated at 14-0 and matched last year's win total with a 4-0 weekend at the Rebel Classic capped by wins over Lamar (3-0) and Jackson State (3-1) Saturday.
The last three sets against Jackson State tell the story for the Rebels entering Southeastern Conference play next weekend on the road at South Carolina and Florida.
"Our team did what it's done all season so far and that's respond to challenges," head coach Steven McRoberts said. "We challenged them in between two and three, and you can see from the score that they responded to that."
After cruising to a 25-12 win over Jackson State in the first set, their then-most lopsided win in a set this season, Ole Miss dropped the second set 25-23 hitting just .194 and committing seven errors.
Coming out of halftime, the Rebels won the first five points on the way to a 25-13 win in the third set and clinched the match with a 25-5 win in the fourth set, their most lopsided win in a set of this season.
Ole Miss hit .389 for the match, including .500 in the third set and .545 in the fourth set. Junior Ty Laporte led the way hitting .455 with 13 kills, followed by sophomore Melanie Crow hitting .409 with 10 kills.
"We had a really good stretch through these four matches (this weekend), where we had a lot of low-error attacking games and where we had really high hitting percentages," McRoberts said. "If we take care of business in the second set, we're breaking the record that we broke yesterday as far as hitting percentage.
"When you have three sets where you're hitting over .500, that's pretty nice. It's definitely a mental thing in there to all of a sudden lose a set when you hit over .500 in the other three sets."
Despite the dropped second set against Jackson State, the first-year head coach is generally pleased with the confidence gained from the first four weeks of the season but also stressed the importance of performing well and winning tight games once SEC play starts.
"Hopefully, it stirs interest around Ole Miss that people want to come out and watch this team," McRoberts said. "One of the questions that was asked of me early on was how to get more fan support, and I said fans want to come watch winners. They want to watch teams that are exciting but also winning. That's something that hopefully we're starting to establish here.
"I feel confident with this team right now. I like where we're at. I like their mentality right now."
