Match Stats
- Alabama def. Ole Miss 3-2, (25-22, 24-26, 25-17, 13-25, 15-6)
- Alabama improves to 19-11, 8-9 SEC, Ole Miss falls to 16-14, 5-12 SEC
- Hosted by Alabama
Alabama senior Krystal Rivers posted a career night as her 35 kills in the match propelled her to 2,118 kills all time and the new school record holder of career kills.
Hayley McSparin also finished in double-digits with 11 kills and a .562 hitting percentage for Alabama. In the back court, Natalie Murison picked up 19 digs.
For Ole Miss, Lexi Thompson recorded her 1,000th career kill and her 20th double-double of the season, with 20 kills and 15 digs. This also was her 33rd double-double of her career. Also posting a double-double was Kate Gibson with 10 kills and 14 digs. Emily Stroup played a big role from the back line as recorded a career-best seven aces.
Press Release
Courtesy of Alabama Athletics
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama volleyball gave the fans an exciting final home match of the 2017 season, going five sets in a thrilling win over Ole Miss Wednesday in Foster Auditorium. In the win, senior Krystal Rivers moved into first place on Alabama’s career kills list.
Alabama (19-11, 8-9 SEC) was led offensively by Rivers with 35 kills, which pushes her career total to 2,118. This passes previous record-holder Erin Heffner’s total of 2,090 set in 2004. Rivers is now Alabama’s all-time leader in kills and points.
The Tide opened the match with a 25-22 win in the first before Ole Miss (16-14, 5-12 SEC) rallied with a 26-24 win in the second to even the match at 1-1 at intermission. Alabama came out of the locker room with a 25-17 win in the third to take a 2-1 lead before Ole Miss earned a lopsided 25-13 victory in the fourth to force a deciding fifth set. The Tide stole the early momentum in the fifth and never looked back, eventually winning 15-6.
All-Freshman honoree Hayley McSparin also finished in double figures with 11 kills and a team-leading .562 hitting percentage with just two errors on 16 swings. Shannon Mikesky and Alexa Tomlak again split setting duties, finishing with 36 and 21 assists, respectively, while three players posted double-digit dig totals led by Natalie Murison with 19.
Alabama led 3-1 early in the first set before Ole Miss responded with five-straight to take a 6-3 lead. The Tide battle back to tie it at 6-6 and the teams traded back and forth with the Rebels holding a slim 15-14 lead at the media timeout. An Ole Miss service error tied it at 15-15 following the break and Alabama scored three more unanswered points to pull back ahead 18-15 as the Rebels took its first team timeout. Ole Miss took its second timeout down by the same margin at 23-20 and the Tide held on to win, 25-22.
After four tie scores early in set two, Ole Miss started to pull away with a 6-2 run to lead 11-7 as Alabama took a timeout. The Rebels tacked on another point after the break to make it 12-7 but the Tide rallied with a 6-1 run to tie it at 13-13 and force Ole Miss to take a timeout. Alabama edged back ahead after the break and led 21-19 at the visitors’ second timeout but the Rebels rallied to tie it at 22-22 and again at the Tide’s first set point to make it 24-24. A service ace for Ole Miss gave them set point, 25-24, as Alabama called a timeout and the Rebels held on to win the set on the next point, 26-24, and tie the match at 1-1.
Alabama came out of the locker room with a fast start to the third set, pulling ahead 8-2 including a 5-0 run heading into an early Ole Miss timeout. The Tide kept the Rebels at arm’s length for the remainder of the frame, only allowing the visitors to draw as close as five points down the stretch as Alabama eventually won 25-17 to take a 2-1 lead.
Needing to win the set to keep the match alive, Ole Miss took an early 6- 2 lead in the fourth to force an Alabama timeout. The Rebels kept the pressure on, scoring four unanswered points to extend the lead to 10-2 as the Tide quickly burned its second timeout. Ole Miss made it a double-digit lead at 17-7 but back-to-back points by Alabama later in the set forced the Rebels to try and halt the momentum with a timeout, leading 18-10. Ole Miss held on to win 25-13 however and force a deciding fifth set.
Alabama scored five unanswered points to start the fifth and held a sizeable 8-2 lead at the mid-set switch. The Tide maintained its six-point lead in the second half, up 12-6, and closed out the set with three-straight points including the match-winning kill by senior Brittany Thomas on senior night to take the set, 15-6, and the match, 3-2.
Next up, Alabama concludes the regular season with a road match at LSU (9-18, 4-12 SEC) Saturday, Nov. 26 at 1 p.m. CT.
For the latest information on Alabama volleyball, follow the team on Twitter (@AlabamaVball), Instagram (AlabamaVball) and Facebook.
Press Release
Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Junior outside hitter Lexi Thompson recorded her 1,000th career kill and her 20th double-double of the season, but the Ole Miss volleyball team lost 3-2 at Alabama Wednesday night at Foster Auditorium.
It marked the Rebels 11th five-setter overall and sixth in SEC play, as they fell to 16-14 overall and 5-12 in the SEC. Alabama improved to 19-11 overall and 8-9 in league play.
The Rebels used a 5-0 run to go up 6-3 early in set one, but the Crimson Tide tied it up, before the Rebels went back up by three later, 13-10. Alabama came right back and gained a four-point lead, 19-15. They went on to take the set 25-22. Junior outside hitter Lexi Thompson had four kills in the set, including her 1,000th career kill.
Ole Miss broke open a 5-5 tie with a 7-2 run to take a 12-7 lead in set two. Bama rallied to go up 17-15 on a 10-3 run. They had later had a set point at 24-23, but the sophomore Kathryn Cather put one down to tie it and then Emily Stroup served up one of her career-high seven aces to give the Rebels a set point. On the next rally, junior Kate Gibson sent it down the middle from the back row to hand the Rebels the set, 26-24 and even the match 1-1.
Alabama came out of the break and took it to the Rebels going up 8-2 and forcing Ole Miss to call its first timeout. The Rebels never got closer than five the rest of the way, as the Crimson Tide kept the pressure on to win the set 25-17 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Strong serving by Stroup allowed the Rebels to take an 11-2 lead in set four and they never looked back going on to take it 25-13 to force a winner-take-all fifth set.
The Crimson Tide raced out to an 8-2 lead in set five on four attack errors by the Rebels and four kills by SEC Player of the Year Krystal Rivers, who finished with a match-high 35. The Rebels never recovered dropping the set 15-6 and the match 3-2.
Quick Hits
• The Rebels fell 5-6 in five-setters.
• The loss snapped a four-match win streak by the Rebels in the series against Alabama.
• Junior Lexi Thompson recorded her 1,000th career kill in the first set. She joins Kate Gibson, who achieved the feat earlier this year.
• Thompson posted her 20th double-double of the season with 20 kills and 15 digs. It also marked her 33rd double-double of her career.
• It also marked the fifth time this season for Thompson to record 20 or more kills.
• Junior Kate Gibson recorded her 15th double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs.
• Junior middle blocker Taylor Alexander posted double-digit kills for the second straight match finishing with 13 kills on a .417 pct.
• Senior Aubrey Edie finished with her 13th double-double of 48 assists and 10 digs. She added to her school-record now with 4,797 career assists.
• Freshman Emily Stroup recorded a career-best seven service aces, which ties for fourth in a single match.
• The Rebels posted a season-high 10 service aces.
• The Rebels set the single-season digs mark now with 1,858.
Up Next
Ole Miss returns home to host South Carolina Friday at 6 p.m. on Senior Day. The Rebels will celebrate senior Aubrey Edie before the start of the match.
For more information on Ole Miss Volleyball, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissVB, on Facebook at OleMissVolleyball and on Instagram at OleMissVB. Also follow Coach McRoberts on Twitter, @CoachMcRoberts.
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