University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
7-14, 0-7SEC
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Mississippi State
6-16, 1-6SEC
Lady Vols Drop Heartbreaker at MSU
October 17, 2014 | Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- After digging its way out of a 2-0 hole to force a fifth set, Tennessee ran out of gas late in the decisive frame as it dropped a tough 3-2 (18-25, 27-29, 25-18, 25-19, 13-15) decision at Mississippi State on Friday night.
Three Lady Vols (7-14, 0-7 SEC) finished the match with double digit kills for just the second time this season, as both Kelsey Bawcombe and Jamie Lea delivered a match-high 17. Bawcombe also finished the night with her second career double-double behind 17 digs. Kendra Turner finished with 10 kills on the night.
Bawcombe's 17 kills match her career-high while Lea's came one short of tying her season-best of 18. The duo combined to take 98 of Tennessee's 187 attack attempts and Bawcmombe came away with an attack percentage of .229 while Lea posted a .200 clip.
Sophomore setter Taylor Johnson led Tennessee with 34 assists, a new career-best and her first 30+ assist performance for the Orange and White. Johnson also tallied 11 digs along the way to finish with her first career double-double.
The double-dips coming from Bawcombe and Johnson mark the first time that multiple Lady Vols have completed the feat in the same match since a Sept. 20 win over Mercer in Knoxville.
Meanwhile, Lexi Dempsey added 21 assists to move into eighth place all-time on UT's career assist list. Dempsey now has 1,541 career assists to her name, passing Allison Stricklin's 1,530 with her 11th assist of the match in the third set.
Setting another career-high, Megan Hatcher led the Lady Vols in digs with a career-best 25. Bawcombe's 17 came next, followed by Bridgette Villano's 14.
Facing a 2-0 deficit heading into match break, Tennessee grabbed an early advantage in the third set. The Lady Vols maintained a slim lead over MSU (6-16, 1-6 SEC) into the middle portion of the frame before closing things out on an 8-2 run. Turner, Bawcombe, and Lea accounted for 13 of UT's 17 kills in the set, with Turner posting five. Tennessee swung a match-best .366 in the set, only committing two attack errors, while limiting the Bulldogs to an attack percentage of .130.
Having extended the match, UT kept its foot on the gas in the fourth set. The visitors raced out to a 10-5 advantage, getting four kills from Bawcombe along the way. MSU kept within striking distance for much of the set, but UT kept the Bulldogs at bay -- even extending the lead back to as much as six on its way to a fourth-set victory to force a fifth and final frame.
A nail-biter throughout, the fifth set's race to 15 featured four ties along the way. MSU took an early lead and rode it to a 10-7 score line late in the game. But two kills from Lea and another from Bawcombe helped UT fight back to 12-12. But the tie score was broken on a Bulldog kill that barely caught the end line, putting the visitors in front by a point. Bawcombe brought the Lady Vols back level with another kill, but MSU got to match point with a kill of their own and sealed the victory when UT committed an attack error on match point.
Tennessee began the match with a 25-18 loss in set one and came out on the wrong side of a back-and-forth 29-27 decision in set two.
From Starkville, UT treks to Athens for a Sunday showdown at Georgia. That match will be televised nationally on the SEC Network and is slated for 12 p.m. ET first serve.
