The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
1-12
Mississippi Valley State
14-1
Rebels Equal Best Start in School History
9/19/2015 | Volleyball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Ole Miss volleyball team matched its best start in school history (14-1), sweeping Mississippi Valley State 25-4, 25-8, 25-21, to win the Fight Like Hal Memorial Tournament here at Bartow Arena Saturday.
The Rebels have now won 10 straight and eight consecutive tournament titles dating back to 2014. On Friday, Ole Miss defeated Jacksonville State and host UAB 3-1.
Quick Hits
• Ty Laporte was named the Fight Like Hal Memorial Tournament MVP and Nakeyta Clair and Kristen Brashear made the all-tournament team. Laporte was named to her second all-tournament team this season, while Clair made her third one. This is the first all-tournament team honor for Brashear.
• Laporte finished the tournament with 37 kills, hit .544 and averaged almost a block per set. Clair posted 37 kills and hit .468 on the weekend. Brashear passed well all weekend and average 3.07 digs per set.
• The Rebels hit .395 in the match against MVSU and finished the weekend at .316.
• Everyone got to play against the Devilettes, including freshman Caroline Adams serving as the team's Libero in the third set.
• Freshman Audrey Fischer earned her first playing time of the year in the match against MVSU and had a kill.
• At one point, the Rebels had one junior, two sophomores and three freshmen on the floor at the same time.
Quoting Head Coach Steven McRoberts
"Ty has put together a great run of matches and she is having a tremendous senior year. Nakeyta just stays at a consistently high level. We've needed our middles to be our go to players and Ty and Keyta definitely have answered the call. Kristen Brashear had a solid week starting with the Lipscomb match and she not only made plays on the back row for us, but she passed so well in serve receive. Caroline also had a great weekend passing. Our team over .300 for the weekend and that is a credit to Aubrey and the way she sets our hitters to put them in position to be successful."
In two years under Coach McRoberts, the Rebels have posted a 28-1 non-conference record. The team's goal is to improve on last year's SEC record and make the NCAA Tournament. They'll get an opportunity to go against the best right out of the gate.
The Rebels open up SEC play next Friday at No. 5 Florida before returning home to host arch-rival Mississippi State Sunday at 2 p.m.
"Overall I am pleased with our pre-conference play," McRoberts said. "We've fought through adversity, illness, injuries and a lot of different players have played. We've continued to have success even with all the different lineups. I'm thankful that we are done with playing two a day or three matches over two days. We need to heal up and now we have a little more time to do that.
"Next week starts SEC play, and we are going to have to play the best volleyball that we've played all season in order to win matches in the league. I know this team will work hard and is ready for the challenge."
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.
