Volleyball Hits Home Stretch, Hosts Arkansas & Mississippi State

OXFORD, Miss. – With just five games left in the regular season, Ole Miss volleyball is set for a pair of rematches this weekend, hosting Arkansas and Mississippi State.

The Rebels (14-9, 4-7 SEC) open the weekend against Arkansas (16-7, 6-5 SEC) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT, before welcoming Mississippi State (10-10, 4-7 SEC) on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.

Sunday's match will be the team's senior day celebration, as they celebrate the careers of Emma Ammerman, Payton Brgoch, Sommer Daniel, Julia Dyess, Ragan Kinard, Bailee Middleton and Sasha Ratliff.

RALLY POINTS

The Rebels enter the home stretch with a mixed slate of matches in front of them. Ole Miss faces two quad one (1-25 RPI) opponents (Texas & Missouri), one quad two (26-50) opponent (Arkansas) and two quad four (sub-100) opponents (Alabama & Mississippi State) remaining.
Junior outside hitter Nia Washington continues to shine in a breakout campaign and has now tallied all five of her career 20-kill matches in SEC play this season. The Rebels are 8-4 in matches where she hits .200 or better.
Setter Mokihana Tufono continues her torrid pace in her first season in Oxford, with 839 assists and 10.36 assists per set, which ranks third in the SEC. Tufono is seeking to become the first Rebel with 1,000 assists in a season since Kylee McLaughlin in 2021.
Libero Cammy Niesen now stands at 1,236 career digs, which ranks fifth all-time at Ole Miss.
The service game has become critical for the Rebels to have success this season, as the team is 13-2 overall when they tally more service aces than their opponent.

SERIES HISTORY

For the second time this season, the Rebels and Razorbacks will clash, with Arkansas leading the all-time ledger, 43-15.
The Rebels dropped the last meeting in a 3-0 decision in Fayetteville, but have reason for optimism, with the first and third set decided by narrow margins, despite a poor offensive performance from the Rebels. Julia Dyess led the way in the last meeting with 12 kills and 12 digs.
The Rebels will clash with Mississippi State once again on Sunday, holding a 63-27 lead in the all-time series.
Despite taking the opening set, the Rebels were unable to outlast the Bulldogs in the last meeting, falling 3-1 in Starkville on Oct. 23. Nia Washington led the Rebels with 21, but the Rebels hit just .177 as a unit.

LAST TIME OUT
The Rebels got 26 kills from Nia Washington and 20 kills from Shayla Meyer, but dropped a narrow, 3-2 decision to Oklahoma on Friday at the Gilllom Center.

Washington and Meyer shined, while Sasha Ratliff matched her career-high with nine blocks. Mokihana Tufono also added 53 assists and the Rebels were tied with the Sooners at 10-10 in the fifth set but could not pull out the win.

TAKING SECOND CHANCES
Under head coach Bre Henry, the Rebels have been effective at taking lessons from teams they face twice in the same season.

Henry and the Rebels have improved their result each of the last four occasions and flipped the opening result from a loss to a win in game two each of the last three matches, against Missouri (2023), Mississippi State (2023) and Northern Colorado (2024). The Rebels will face Arkansas and Mississippi State for the second time each this weekend.

RISING STAR
Nia Washington is in the midst of a breakout junior season and her play has elevated the Rebels to new heights, as they've surged past last season's win total by early October.

Washington has become a lethal hitter in recent weeks, averaging 4.29 kills per set in conference play, compared to her 3.65 kills per set average this season. The New Orleans native has five, 20-kill matches in her last nine contests and has already blown past all of her previous career-highs across numerous categories so far.

Her play has gained her recognition nationally, as she tallied 20 kills in a win against Tennessee and 28 kills in a win against LSU, before being named to NCAA Volleyball's "Rotation of the Week". The Rebels are now 8-4 in matches where she hits over .200.

SERVE IT UP
Under head coach Bre Henry, the Rebels are priding themselves on their desire to be a strong service team, with early results showing tremendous improvement.

Shayla Meyer leads the team with a career-high 27 aces so far in 2024, which is just four away from entering the top-five in a single season in the rally scoring era. In additon, Nia Washington reached the 20-ace threshold on Oct. 30 and Emma Ammerman also reached the mark on Nov. 8. Four other players have at least 10 or more service aces this season.

The Rebels tie much of their success to the service game and are 13-2 when they record more aces than their opponent so far this season. On the flip side, in all but three matches they have lost, the Rebels have tallied more than 10 service errors. Additionally, they have lost three of the five matches with their highest service error totals.

Those metrics were confirmed further on Oct. 30, when the Rebels held Auburn to zero service aces, which was the first time they have held an SEC opponent to zero aces since November 27, 2021 against Alabama.

FAMILY AFFAIR
Blocking runs in the Ratliff family. In four years, Ole Miss middle blocker Sasha Ratliff has established herself as one of the top blockers in program history, ranking first all-time in the rally scoring era with 478 total blocks, first in block assists with 380 and second in solo blocks with 98. A dominant force at the net, Ratliff has tallied 100-plus blocks in each of her last three seasons and is looking to do it a fourth straight time as she enters her fifth year as a Rebel. Her knack for blocking comes from her father, Theo, who was a shot blocker too. One of basketball's best, he ranks 20th in NBA history with nearly 2,000 blocks in his 16-year career.

CLIMBING THE LADDER
Several Rebels are poised to etch their names in the all-time record books in 2024 across multiple different metrics.

Sasha Ratliff and Payton Brgoch are seeking to end their careers at No. 1 and No. 2 on the all-time blocks list (post rally scoring). Ratliff (478) has taken the No. 1 spot, while Brgoch sits at No. 3 (429) and just seven blocks away from passing Nakeyta Clair (435) for No. 2.

Additionally, Ratliff and Brgoch also rank 3rd and 5th respectively on the combined blocks list. Ratliff sits behind Genevieve Shy (1993-96 - 502 blocks) and Julie Link (1983-86 - 484 blocks), who both competed during the sideout scoring era.

Junior libero Cammy Niesen continues to rewrite the record books on the defensive side by rising up the top-10 all-time in the rally scoring era. Niesen stands at 1,236 career digs, which ranks fifth all-time in program history. Niesen needs 47 digs to pass Lexi Thompson and move into fourth place.

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Players Mentioned

Emma Ammerman

Payton Brgoch

Sommer Daniel

Julia Dyess

Ragan Kinard

Shayla Meyer

Bailee Middleton

Cammy Niesen

Sasha Ratliff

Mokihana Tufono

Nia Washington

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