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VBall Bulldogs Face Road Tests At UT, No. 11 Kentucky

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Courtesy: mstateathletics.com

November 04, 2009

STARKVILLE, Miss. - The Volleyball Bulldogs put the finishing touches on the SEC Eastern Division portion of their 2009 volleyball schedule this weekend with a two-match road swing to Tennessee and Kentucky.

Mississippi State (6-19, 2-12 SEC) takes on Tennessee (17-6, 10-3 SEC) Friday (6 p.m. CST) in Knoxville at Thompson-Boling Arena before journeying on to Lexington, Ky., for a Sunday (12:30 p.m. CST) meeting battle with SEC-leading Kentucky (22-2, 12-1 SEC) at historic Memorial Coliseum. State dropped straight-set decisions to both teams three weeks ago in Starkville.

The Bulldogs enter their 11th weekend of fall competition buoyed by an impressive showing last weekend against South Carolina and perennial SEC power Florida. State rode a dazzling career-best 22-kill, .459 hitting performance by junior middle blocker Ashley Newsome to a 3-1 win over the Gamecocks last Friday. The Bulldogs then extended No. 9 Florida in a closely-contested three-set (25-23, 257-25, 25-22) Sunday match.

Newsome, who leads the Bulldogs with 269 kills, a .255 attack percentage and 95 kills, registered seven blocks against the Gators. She begins the weekend with an SEC-leading 19 solo blocks. She tallied 29 kills, hit .310 and delivered 11 total blocks (five solos).

Senior setter Dorey Gray piled up 73 assists and established career-bests with 14 digs in both weekend matches to register her third and fourth double-doubles of the year. Gray climbed to ninth on MSU's all-time career assists charts with 1,197.

Tennessee, second in the SEC in both digs (16.12 d/s) and blocks (2.58 b/s), is paced by SEC digs leader Chloe Goldman (408 digs), Nikki Fowler (302 kills) and Farren Powe (103 blocks). Kentucky opens the weekend tops in the league with 1310 kills. UK is paced by SEC leaders Sarah Mendoza (384 kills) and by Sarah Rumely (1,049 assists).

The Bulldogs resume competition at the Newell-Grissom Building next weekend, taking on Arkansas (Friday, 7 p.m.) and Ole Miss (Sunday, 1:30 p.m.).