Lexi Thompson hits the ball during an NCAA college volleyball match in Oxford, Miss., Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. (DM Photo/Ariel Cobbert)
Ole Miss volleyball continued their perfect start to the 2014 season, beating Louisiana Tech Thursday night at the Gillom Sports Complex in Oxford to kick off the Rebel Classic.
Thursday night thunderstorms added to the atmosphere in Gillom where the Rebels dominated Conference USA opponent, Louisiana Tech.
The Rebels won in straight sets (25-22, 25-18, 25-16) to improve to 11-0 on the year.
Ole Miss took the opening point of the match. Louisiana Tech tied the first set at one point each and the Rebels never looked back. The match saw no lead changes and the one tie.
Seniors Marie-Pierre Bakima and Nakeyta Clair and freshman Lexi Thompson racked up nine kills each. Sophomore Aubrie Edie recorded 34 assists and senior Cara Fisher got eleven digs.
Junior Ty Laporte added eight kills of her own.
“It’s us, but it’s the crowd too,” Laporte said. “We wanna be the team that’s fun to watch.”
Laporte said the team got comfortable sometimes but that they are improving at getting better.
“When coach would call a timeout or get into us we responded immediately,” she said.
In the first two sets, the Rebels earned comfortable leads before allowing the Bulldogs to fight back.
The Rebels gave up runs of four and five points multiple times throughout the match.
“Us being out of position and us not being consistent and doing the right things over and over are things that are allowing anywhere from four to seven points per set,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. “You have things that don’t necessarily hurt us when we have a big lead but they will hurt when we get into SEC play.”
McRoberts said he was satisfied with the effort and execution in the third set but that the team needs to work on focus.
“One of the biggest things we’ve talked about is our focus coming into matches,” he said. “We’ve got to be more disciplined in our defense and do things right the whole way through.”
McRoberts said the third set was the best for the Rebels Thursday night. In that set the Rebels hit .500 and didn’t commit a hitting error.
Clair had four of the eleven kills in the third set for the Rebels.
“Other teams are going to come in here and try and shatter our dreams,” Clair said. “But we’re a different team this year.”
The Rebels lay their perfect record on the line against Samford today at 5:30 p.m.
“I think Samford is going to be a good opponent. I think they’re going to test us maybe more than any other team that’s come in here,” McRoberts said.
McRoberts and his team are very much aware that SEC play is just three games away.
He wants his team to continue to work on focus.
“We’ve got to stop being scoreboard watchers and just play,” McRoberts said. “We need to play like it doesn’t matter which jersey is on the other side.”
McRoberts is on the same page as his players.
“We have to learn to keep our intensity up the whole time,” Laporte said. “It’s a mental thing.”
