Mississippi’s Melanie Crow, 20, spikes the ball during an NCAA women’s basketball game against Kentucky in Oxford, Miss., Friday, Nov. 14, 2014. Ole Miss lost 3-1.
After a win on the road at Mississippi State and a loss on the road at Texas A&M, the Ole Miss volleyball team was ready to return home to Gillom. Coming into the match with a 6-6 record in Southeastern Conference play, the Rebels (20-7) knew a win against the Kentucky Wildcats (11-2) would be vital.
The Rebels started the match off strong, gaining a quick lead against the Wildcats. After a timeout called by head coach Steven McRoberts, the break seemed to have lit a fire under Kentucky; however, the Wildcats came back to close the gap to 19-17. The Rebels did not lose momentum and increased their lead to 24-20. With a kill from sophomore Melanie Crow, the Rebels took set one 25-20.
The Rebels did not start off set two as strong, trailing the Wildcats 16-14 midway through the set. Using momentum to their advantage, the Wildcats increased their lead to 21-16 and forced a Rebel timeout. Kentucky would take set two 25-18.
After the break, the Wildcats’ momentum seemed to get the best of the Rebels, and Kentucky would take set three 25-15.
The Rebels seemed to have regrouped in set four, taking a quick 8-4 lead. The Rebels were looking to extend the match to five sets. The Wildcats came back, tying the set at 16. After the Wildcats regained the lead, a kill by freshman Taylor Alexander tied the set at 22. Despite a hard-fought set, the Rebels would fall to the Wildcats 23-25, losing the match 3-1.
“Early in the first set we executed well, but Kentucky helped us out with a lot of errors,” McRoberts said. “They’re a very good team, and they typically play low errors. So, I knew that after the first set they would cut out a lot of those, and they did.”
Kentucky had eight errors in set one, which is more than they had combined in the last three sets, with two errors in set two and four in set four.
“We found out about three hours before the match that (junior) Nakeyta (Clair) was not going to be available, so we had to do a makeshift lineup and didn’t really have much of a chance to practice it,” McRoberts said. “Then you go in to play the No. 15 team in the nation, but I’m really proud of the effort that we put forth.”
Despite a missing Clair, who is second in the SEC in hitting percentage, freshman Lexi Thompson rose to the occasion offensively with twenty-one kills, followed by Crow at 13 kills.
OLE MISS SPORTS
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Laporte Leads Rebels in Loss to Missouri
Junior Ty Laporte and senior Marie-Pierre Bakima notched career days in kills and digs respectively, but the Ole Miss volleyball team fell to Missouri 3-2 (25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-27, 15-6) Sunday at Hearnes Arena in a nationally-televised match on the SEC Network.
The Rebels held a 23-22 lead in the fourth set up 2-1 in the match, but the Tigers converted on their fourth set point to send the match to a fifth set. Missouri got off to a fast start and never looked back, winning it 15-6 to clinch the 3-2 win.
Laporte recorded a career-high 23 kills on a .439 clip. Bakima notched a career-best 24 digs. Aubrey Edie had 51 assists. The Rebels hit just .193 on 32 errors, while Missouri hit .362 with just 11 errors.
The Rebels return home for their final four regular season matches, beginning with No. 7 Florida Friday at 6:30 p.m.
