The Rebel volleyball team continued their undefeated season Friday night as they took on UT-Arlington for their first match of the Rebel Classic tournament.
The Rebels fell to UT in the first set, but it did not take long for them to bounce back and claim sets two, three and four. It took making some changes in serving and defense to give the Rebels the momentum to claim the majority of the sets.
According to head coach Steven McRoberts neither team was getting stops or making errors, but as the match went on his defense started to improve as the hitters stayed hot the whole match.
“I felt like we were hitting our spots better with our serves and making them a little bit more one dimensional and then our blocks picked us up,” McRoberts told Ole Miss Sports.
Lexi Thompson, a junior outside hitter from Riverview, Florida, got her third double-double in four matches with 11 digs and 14 kills against UT-Arlington. Kathryn Cather, a senior from Hoover, Alabama, put up 14 kills with only three errors in the match.
Kate Gibson who was named SEC player of the week led the team with 16 kills in the match. She had three solo blocks as well.
Senior setter, Aubrey Edie from Fayetteville, Arkansas, needs only 79 more assists to break the career record for assists set by Rachael Kieckhaefer at 3,801.
“I am excited that these young ladies came off this week of practice and played like that and it is nice to get that first win at home and the first match in the pavilion,” McRoberts said.
For a non-conference match, there was a large crowd that brought a lot of energy to the game. McRoberts thought at times the crowd made a difference when sets were close, and he hopes to keep getting larger crowds back to the pavilion for matches.
“We are really happy with the win but we can not be satisfied with just being 4-0 right now,” McRoberts said.“We know and these young ladies know we can get better and we plan on coming out and playing some good volleyball tomorrow.”
Both of the teams the Rebels face tomorrow are well coached and after watching them play today McRoberts says the Rebels are going to have to bring their best and need to keep improving.
The Rebels take on McNeese State at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in the Pavilion and conclude play for the weekend at 7:30 p.m. against NC State.
