The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Head to Tuscaloosa, Starkville
11/24/2015 | Volleyball
Complete Notes (PDF)
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss Volleyball will spend Thanksgiving on the road, beginning with a match at Alabama Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., from Foster Auditorium. The match will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Following Wednesday's match, the Rebels will head to Starkville where they will enjoy a Thanksgiving meal Thursday, before taking on Mississippi State Friday at 2 p.m., the day before the football teams meet in the annual Egg Bowl.
Quick Hits
• Ole Miss dropped a 3-1 decision to Missouri in their final home match of the season Sunday to fall to 21-10 overall, 7-9 in the SEC.
• Senior Ty Laporte finished with 11 kills and 5 blocks. She now needs 14 kills to reach 1,000 for career.
• Senior Nakeyta Clair posted eight kills and six blocks, one off her season-high of seven.
• Junior setter Aubrey Edie posted her team-leading 10th double-double of the year, with 32 assists and 18 digs. She also added four blocks.
• Four players notched double-digit digs, including junior Kristen Brashear with a team-high 21. She has posted double-digits in 15 of 16 SEC matches. It also marked the sixth time overall and fifth time in SEC play for Brashear to have at least 20 digs. Brashear now has 936 career digs and needs 14 to move into fifth place all-time at Ole Miss.
• The Rebels rank sixth in the SEC in hitting percentage (.228) and kills per set (13.19 - 5th), while leading in service aces per set (1.53).
• Nakeyta Clair ranks seventh in the SEC in hitting percentage at .361. Ty Laporte ranks eighth at .358 and seventh in SEC matches only at .330. Clair also ranks 14th in the SEC in points per set with 3.57. Kristen Brashear ranks seventh (0.31) in aces per set. Brashear ranks seventh overall in digs per set at 3.96 and is sixth in SEC matches only at 4.18 per set.
Scouting Alabama
Alabama enters Wednesday's match at 16-14 overall and 10-6 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide have won three straight, including a 3-1 win at South Carolina last Friday and a 3-0 win at Georgia on Sunday. Alabama is led by junior middle blocker Krystal Rivers, who ranks second in the conference with 4.06 kills per set, and sophomore outside hitter Kat Hutson, who ranks fourth with 3.68 kills per set and was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Senior Sierra Wilson was named the SEC Setter of the Week and earlier this year became the career-leader in assists.
Rebels vs. Crimson Tide
Alabama leads the all-time series 43-21, but the Rebels have won two straight. They beat the Tide 3-2 in Tuscaloosa last year and then did the same thing in Oxford a month later.
Alabama Rebels
Ole Miss boasts two players from the state of Alabama. Freshman Kathryn Cather hails from Hoover, and freshman Taylor Gill comes from Madison.
Laporte Records Watch
Senior Ty Laporte is making her way up the career chart in kills. With 986 she ranks fifth and needs 14 to reach 1,000. She would become the second player this year to reach 1,000 kills, as teammate and fellow senior Nakeyta Clair accomplished the feat in September.
Quoting Head Coach Steven McRoberts
"Alabama is playing much better than they did at the beginning of the season and they've won three straight. Last year we won both meetings in five, so we can expect another tough match tomorrow. Mississippi State took it to us here, so hopefully we can give them a much better match this time around and close out the season on a high note."
For more information on Ole Miss Volleyball, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissVB, on Facebook at OleMissVolleyball and on Instagram at OleMissVB. Also follow Coach McRoberts on Twitter, @CoachMcRoberts.
