SAVANNAH, Ga. — A balanced Commodore attack powered 15-seed Vanderbilt volleyball’s 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 25-17) sweep over 10th-seeded Mississippi State in the first round of the Allstate SEC Volleyball Tournament on Friday night at Enmarket Arena.
Vanderbilt (8-17, 3-12 SEC) hit .429 as a team, its highest hitting efficiency of the season, and sided out at 63.3 percent with setters Isabella Bareford and Taryn DeWese leading the Dores’ balanced offensive efforts. Mia Soerensen recorded a team-high 12 kills, hitting at a .524 clip. Jackie Moore also hit .500, tallying eight kills. With respective hitting efficiencies of .429 and .353, Reese Animashaun and Maya Witherspoon each contributed seven kills. Bareford and Elli Kinney each recorded 11 digs. For the second match in a row and the fifth time this season, Bareford recorded a double-double with 22 assists and 11 digs. The Dores combined for 13 blocks, with Kayla leading the way with seven.
Vandy’s defensive efforts held the Bulldogs (16-10, 6-9 SEC) to a .010 hitting efficiency and just 25 kills. Lindsey Mangelson had a team-high eight kills, followed by Gha’Naye Whitfield Moss with six. McKenna Yates had a team-high 13 digs. Maria Bernard Aguilar Toranza and Whitfield Moss combined for the Bulldogs’ sole block of the night.
To start the match, Mississippi State came out swinging, jumping out to a 4-1 advantage. Vanderbilt, however, strung together several scoring runs to shift the momentum, ending the set with seven unanswered points. The Dores held the Bulldogs to a sideout percentage of just 29 percent, while Vandy recorded a .600 hitting efficiency. Vanderbilt won the opening set, 25-14.
Vandy maintained its momentum in the second set, which it won by a score of 25-11. Siding out at 81 percent, the Dores registered a pair of six-point runs to hold onto its lead and hold Mississippi State to a -.156 hitting percentage.
The third set continued in a similar fashion as Vandy hit .355 with Soerensen and Moore each tallying five kills. The Commodores closed out their sweep with a 25-17 win in set 3.
Vanderbilt will face seventh-seeded Georgia in the second round of the Allstate SEC Volleyball Tournament Saturday at 4 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.
