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Warren Fuels MSU Volleyball’s 3-0 Victory In Athens
In
the last road match of her collegiate career, Alex Warren put on one of
the most dominating performances of her four years with the Maroon and
White.
Her 21 kills, .528 attacking percentage
and four aces spearheaded Mississippi State’s (15-15, 4-12 SEC) 3-0
victory against the Georgia Bulldogs (5-23, 0-16 SEC) Sunday night at
the Ramsey Student Center.
Warren’s kill total
marked a career high for three-set matches for the San Antonio, Texas
native. She also set a career high with an impressive .528 attack
percentage, scoring 21 kills on 36 attempts with only 2 errors.
“I
was very happy with the total team performance tonight and especially
with the play of Alex Warren, one of our senior leaders,” MSU coach
David McFatrich said. “We were a little tight in the first set, but the
girls responded strong in the second and third sets and got a big
victory for us. Now our attention turns to getting home and finishing
this season out on a high note.”
The win puts MSU
with four SEC wins this season, the most since the 2011 season. It’s
State’s first win at UGA since Oct. 3, 2010 and only the fifth in
school history. Sunday marked a season sweep of Georgia for State and
the first back-to-back wins against UGA since 2006-07.
State
started off sluggish Sunday, as Georgia jumped out to a 3-0 lead. State
roared back and the two teams went back and forth until the very end.
UGA held several set points, but Warren’s ninth kill of the set, along
with her third ace of the frame gave MSU set point. The Bulldogs would
seal a 27-25 first-set win thanks to a Chelsea Duhs’ lone kill, putting
the Bulldogs ahead 1-0 in the match.
The Bulldogs
used a more balanced attack in the second set, creating distance off a
6-1 run midway through the frame. Warren posted 7 kills, while Evie
Grace Singleton tacked on 5 of her own to push the Bulldogs ahead 2-0
with a 25-17 second-set win.
Warren and Singleton
again dominated the offensive attack for the Maroon and White in the
third, posting 5 kills each and hitting .400 or above. MSU came out of
the gates quick, 5-1, and never looked back despite Georgia trying to
start a number of runs. UGA would come as close as three, but could
never close the gap completely, as State would go on to a 25-19 set win
to seal the sweep of Georgia.
Singleton was the
other MSU Bulldog in double-digits, putting up 12 kills on the night.
Blossom Sato led all players with 21 assists, while Shelby Anderton
tacked on 17.
As a team, MSU put together 8 aces,
with Warren (4), Anderton (2), Sato (1) and Payton Harris (1) all
contributing to the Bulldogs’ serving prowess.
Harris
was the match leader in digs with 13, while Emily Howard topped all
players with 5 total blocks. Three of those blocks were solo denials,
which is new career high for the senior middle blocker.
Jasmine
Eatmon and Maddie Lobenstein led Georgia with 9 kills each. Kendall
Kazor led UGA with 15 assists, while Cassidy Anderson topped the team
with 12 digs. Three different UGA Bulldogs posted three total blocks on
the night.
MSU will close out the 2015 campaign
with a pair of home contests, starting against LSU on Wednesday, Nov.
25 (7 p.m. CT) and finishing with Ole Miss on Friday, Nov. 27 (2 p.m.).
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