University of Georgia
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Mississippi State
UGA Wins Battle Of The Bulldogs Defeating MSU, 3-1
November 19, 2010 | Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. - In a battle of the Southeastern Conference's two Bulldog mascot schools, the Georgia volleyball team topped Mississippi State, 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-16, 29-27), on Friday evening at the Newell-Grissom Building.
With the win, Georgia (14-16, 5-13 SEC) split the two-match season series with Mississippi State (11-18, 3-15 SEC) as MSU won a five-set match earlier in the year in Athens. Friday's match appeared to be headed to five-sets as well, but Georgia erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth set to avoid going to a fifth frame for the ninth time this season.
"This match showed a balance from our entire team both in the competitive spirit they brought to the court and the execution that took place on it," Interim head coach Chad Hanson said.
UGA took an early 1-0 lead in the match by taking a closely contest first set 25-22. In the second set, MSU jumped out to a 6-1 advantage and built its lead to as many as eight at 12-4 before holding on to take it 25-21 despite UGA battling to within two at 23-21.
After the intermission, the two schools remained close early on in the third set and it was a one-point set at 15-14 until Georgia took control. From there, UGA closed the frame on a 10-2 run to take the set 25-16 and go up 2-1 in the match.
The fourth set played out in a comparable fashion to the second with MSU building another eight-point lead at 14-6, but this time Georgia's rally proved to be enough as it forced ties at 24-, 25-, 26- and 27-all before earning the win at 29-27.
As a team, UGA combined to post 64 kills a .299 hitting percentage as junior setter Kathleen Gates paced the offense with 47 assists. Gates distributed her sets all around as four Georgia players finished with double-digit kill totals. Redshirt freshman outside hitter Kathleen Luft notched a team-best 16 kills while middle hitters Valentina Gonzalez and Ann Dylla had 13 kills apiece and freshman outside hitter Brittany Northcutt added another 12.
Georgia also played a strong defensive match leading MSU in blocks, 11.0 to 7.0, and digs, 80 to 70. The 80 digs were a season-best for UGA, and it marked the first time Georgia has recorded more than 75 digs in a match since Nov. 9, 2008 versus Alabama (84). Georgia also had four players finish with double-digit totals in the digs category as junior libero Carla Tietz tied her career-best performance with 23. The impressive outing moved Tietz up seventh in career digs at Georgia with 1,227. Other UGA players with double-digit digs in Friday's match included Luft, who added 15 digs to record her fourth double-double of the year, sophomore Nicole Choi with 12 digs and freshman Allison Summers with 11 digs.
The blocking effort by Georgia was led by Gonzalez with seven stops while senior Simone May and Gates each added four blocks. Gonzalez's seven blocks raised her career block assist total to 411, which ranks second all-time at UGA behind Lital Sisso's 413.
"To have attacked at a .299 percentage with four hitters in double digit kills is a testament to our offense tonight led by Gates' 47 assists," Hanson said. "Defensively, we were led by Tietz's 23 digs and Gonzalez's seven blocks, and we had three other players with double-digit digs as well. We are most pleased though not with the box score but the result of coming back from an early eight-point deficit in the fourth set to win the match."
Up next, Georgia travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to face Alabama (10-18, 2-16 SEC) on Sunday. First serve between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide is slated for 2 p.m. and the match will be televised by CSS. Earlier this season in Athens, UGA defeated UA, 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 27-25, 25-17).
