In Last Home Contest, Volleyball Shines Bright in Playoff Action
MC Volleyball Defeats Lee 3-0 in GSC First Round Match
For a Mississippi College volleyball team that was picked to finish second in the Gulf South Conference and wound up finish sixth, the Choctaws were ecstatic that they could host a first-round matchup inside the Golden Dome to give their seniors one last match inside of A.E Wood Coliseum. The Blue and Gold dominated against the Flames, sweeping the seven seed in the tournament in three straight sets, and even did not allow the visitors to reach 20 points in any set.
For one of the three seniors of the team in Sloane Fitzhenry, the momentum heading into conference play is crucial for their postseason success as the team are now winners of four straight matches after losing their previous five before the streak.
“Since we’ve been pretty hot at this end of the season and everyone’s been on, I think we really found our chemistry especially with us being a young team,” Fitzehenry says, “It took us longer than we expected to build that chemistry, but I think we finally pulled it together and realized we can be that number two team we were projected to be, and even number one.”
In the three sets, Fitzhenry recorded seven kills on a team second-best .538 attack percentage and three service aces, which all seemed to come at the most opportune of times. Like always, Caroline Chastang and Lydia Paulette dominated the offense, as both had double-digit kills on the match and 20 digs combined between the two. Facilitating was Caylin Pixley, who made her first collegiate start, and Mary Grace Foster who each had 14 assists. The Choctaws never trailed in the first two sets and sparked a 7-1 run in the final portions of the final set to seal the win. To write a storybook ending, the last point of the match was a kill from Fitzhenry; her final time of action inside the Golden Dome.
“Emotions were super high tonight, and I know everyone was trying not to be tense since it’s our last home game,” says Fitzhenry. “We just wanted to live in the moment, but we knew that we needed to come in hard and want to sweep them because we knew that they were going to come back wanting vengeance after we sweep them last time.”
The support for the Mississippi volleyball team has also grown exponentially from just a few seasons ago. Whereas just a few Choctaw faithful would cheer on the volleyball squad, now students and other MC teams come in droves to watch and cheer on the volleyball squad. In fact, for the first time in history, the MC band played inside of A.E. Wood Coliseum during stoppages of play to get the crowd and team going. The support has majorly had an impact, though, as the Choctaws are 16-3 at home across the past two season when the team’s support has been at its highest.
For Fitzhenry on the student body’s love, she thinks they are “awesome. I think last season was the height of it [the support] and this season they stepped it up even more. They brought back the tunnel after we win games, everyone gets really into it and cheers, they make signs, and I definitely believe that we have the best fans in the whole conference.”
Now moving on to the second round of the Gulf South Conference tournament, the Choctaws face third-seeded Auburn Montgomery, a foe that MC has already beaten twice before this season, but will need to do so a third time in order to keep their NCAA Tournament dreams alive. Their match against the Warhawks, held at West Florida, begins at 6:30 p.m. CT. With the wind at their backs and momentum on their side, the Choctaws final stretch of the season hopes to be prolonged by a team who is playing their best volleyball of the year at just the perfect time.