Arkansas Overpowered By Mississippi State in Series Finale

The Razorbacks had their last home match on Sunday and despite knotting the match up 1-1 early, Arkansas fell in four against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Hogs are now 18-10 on the season and 9-8 in SEC play. The Bulldogs are riding a 12-match win streak and are 15-2 in conference play.

The Razorbacks honored their four seniors: Lauren Evans, Ellease Crumpton, Abbigail McGee and Gracie Ryan post-match and they had some great performances on the day. Crumpton led the Hogs with 13 kills and a .478 hitting percentage, Evans posted her 100th and 101st career service aces and Ryan had 34 kills and eight digs.

Mississippi State went on a 3-0 run to start eh match, but the Razorbacks closed in from there and kept it tight. The two teams tied the score 11 times early until the Bulldogs used a two-point run to go up 15-13 at the media timeout. The Bulldogs then scored four of the next seven points for a 19-16 edge and sent Arkansas to huddle. MSU continued to roll and extended its run all the way to 7-0 for set point. Cartwright added a kill, but an Arkansas service error sealed the set 25-17 in the Bulldogs’ favor.

Mississippi State’s scoring run led over into the second set as the Bulldogs opened with a 5-0 run. The Hogs came back with a 7-0 streak of their own which included three kills from Crumpton and two from Head for a 7-6 lead. The Bulldogs strung together a trio of points and went up 12-10 and carried the lead to 15-13 at the media timeout. The Hogs then added three kills and a block to take the 17-15 lead, but Mississippi State stayed closed and tied it 20-all, The Razorbacks then tallied four points to send it to set point. The Bulldogs rallied and made it 24-23, but Arkansas regrouped after a timeout and a kill by Gillen made it 25-23 and tied the match 1-1.

The third set was extremely tight to start and no team led by more than two points early on. Evans tallied her 100th career ace and Head followed with a kill for a 15-13 Arkansas lead at the media timeout. The Bulldogs rallied from there, and while the score was tied three times, a 4- 1 Mississippi State run put the visitors up by three and sent the Razorbacks to huddle. The Hogs added another point off a Bulldogs error, but two straight Bulldogs points closed the set 25-19 and put MSU up 2-1 in the match.

The Bulldogs began the fourth set on a 9-2 run and the lead proved too much for the Hogs to overcome. After a timeout, Mississippi State added six points to Arkansas’ three, and the Razorbacks headed to another timeout down 17-5. The Hogs added a three-point run, which included a kill from junior Natalie Perdue, but Mississippi State struck back and pushed the score over 20. A kill from Crumpton and another ace from Evans were all the points Arkansas could muster, and a kill and ace ended the fourth 25-12 in favor of the Bulldogs and won them the match.

Up Next

Arkansas finishes its regular season on the road with one match at South Carolina on Friday, Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. The match will be streamed on SEC Network+ and South Carolina will provide live stats.

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