Following a difficult road loss to LSU last week, Ole Miss volleyball bounced back in a big way by defeating Texas A&M.
The Rebels, who traveled to College Station for the matchup, have struggled to pull ahead of the pack throughout conference play. Sunday’s matchup with A&M, a fringe top-25 team in the NCAA, provided the ideal scenario for Ole Miss to erase prior mishaps and return to form.
The head-to-head, which pushed the Rebels back to .500 in SEC play, saw Ole Miss take the first two sets, only to drop the closely contested third. But Ole Miss stormed back in the decisive fourth set, earning a win over the Aggies and sending a powerful statement to the rest of the SEC.
The final set, a 25-16 declaration from Ole Miss, was the exclamation point to an impressive outpouring from several Rebel standouts. Leading the way Sunday was sophomore Emily Stroup, who contributed 13 kills on the day. She was followed by fellow sophomore Nayo Warnell and senior Kate Gibson, who added 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
As a team, Ole Miss amassed 53 kills Sunday afternoon, overcoming a somewhat low match hitting percentage of .223. The Rebels also hurdled a three-block deficit to the Aggies en route to their impressive match win.
Perhaps the most impressive takeaway in Sunday night’s overall respectable showing was the Rebels’ ability to rebound after dropping a game. A volleyball game’s momentum can ebb and flow with barely a moment’s notice. Picking up an ultimately game-sealing win during the fourth set after dropping the third speaks volumes of Ole Miss’ quality.
With that said, the Rebels were not without their struggles Sunday. While they started off strong with 15 kills and a .273 hitting percentage during the first set, their second set’s totals regressed to just 10 kills and a .088 hitting percentage.
Despite the back slip and third-match adversity, head coach Steven McRoberts and his team refused to roll over. Instead, the Rebels rallied and assembled their most efficient hitting set of the day. Matching its first set’s 15-kill total and increasing its team hitting percentage to .342, Ole Miss displayed impressive mental fortitude as it steamrolled the Aggies into submission.
Overcoming on-court struggles, be they individual or team-oriented, will determine the fate of Ole Miss’ postseason ambitions. With SEC matchups against conference heavyweights Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi State on the immediate horizon, the Rebels will hope to limit those struggles as much as possible. The SEC is still wide open; Ole Miss is ranked sixth, directly behind Arkansas and Missouri.
The Rebel volleyball team now turns its attention to Wednesday night’s home matchup with the Missouri Tigers.
