University of Georgia
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
Mississippi State
Volleyball: Mississippi State Edges Georgia, 3-2
October 03, 2010 | Volleyball
Oct. 3, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Georgia volleyball team was edged by the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at the Ramsey Student Center.
 Carla Tietz reached 1,000 career digs in Sunday's match vs. MSU.  | |
Georgia took the first and third sets, 27-25 and 25-17, while Mississippi State won the second and fourth sets, 32-30 and 25-20, to send the match to a fifth set, which went to MSU 15-11. With the win, Mississippi State improves to 10-6 overall and 2-3 in Southeastern Conference matches. Georgia drops to 10-6 overall and 2-4 in league play. It was the seventh five-set match of the year for UGA.
"There are always two sides to the equation in a competition no matter what the sport," Georgia head coach Joel McCartney said. "Each team's investment and energy plays a big part of the outcome and this was a very disappointing performance today for us. That said, the other half of the equation was Mississippi State's energy, and they took care of their side pretty well and came out of this with a great win for their program."
While Georgia recorded more kills in the match at 77-66, Mississippi State led in hitting percentage at .327-.273 while also picking up a key edge in blocking at 16.0-5.0. Leading MSU in the contest was Ashley Newsome with a match-best 26 kills to go along with seven blocks. Kayla Woodard finished with a match-best 31 digs, and the blocking effort was also supported by seven stops from Hannah Wilkinson.
Georgia's top performances in the contest came from redshirt freshman outside hitter Kathleen Luft, senior middle hitter Valentina Gonzalez and junior setter Kathleen Gates. Luft recorded the first double-double of her career with a career-best and team-leading 19 kills to go along with a career-best 13 digs, which tied fellow freshman Allison Summers for the team lead in the match. Gonzalez finished with 18 kills on a season-best .667 clip. Gates finished with her fourth-straight double-double with career-high 63 assists to go along with 10 digs. Gates, who leads the team with seven double-doubles fell just shy of a triple-double having also recorded eight kills on a season-best .538 clip.
Also of note for UGA, junior libero Carla Tietz notched 11 digs raising her career total to an even 1,000. She becomes the 17th player in program history to record 1,000 career digs.
Sunday's match concluded a four-match home stand for Georgia as the Bulldogs will return to action on Wednesday at Auburn. First serve between the Bulldogs and Tigers is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, and the match will air live on ESPNU.
"We always seem to have our hands full in this league as it continues to get better and better, but we really need to feel a sense of urgency with our Auburn match coming up," McCartney said. "It will be a big test of our maturity to see how we respond to this disappointment."
