MONTICELLO, Ark. --- The Mississippi College volleyball team dropped its season opener, 3-2, at the University of Arkansas at Monticello on Tuesday, Sept. 7. The Cotton Blossoms improved to 2-3 on the season.
 
The five-set match is the first since March 20, 2021 at Union (Tenn.) University. It's the first five-set setback since Oct. 25, 2019 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
 
Kendall Platt led the team with 20 kills in the match while Lexi Richards added 15. Lexie Laurendine set the table for the offensive attack as she posted a career-high with 47 assists. Defensively, five Choctaws recorded double-digit digs in the contest led by Missy Beber with 34. Platt added 27 digs with 12 coming from Laurendine. Richards provided 10 and 11 came from Erin Davis.
 
MC claimed the first set 25-18 and after the Green and White knotted the contest at 1-1, the Choctaws responded with a dominating 25-15 win in the third set to take a 2-1 lead in the match. UAM answered in the fourth set as it slipped by with a 25-21 victory to tie the contest for the second time and send the Navy and Gold's first contest of the season into the deciding set. The Blossoms jumped out early with the first three points of the set and walked away with a 15-7, match-clinching win.
 
UAM broke the series deadlock with its second win all-time against the Choctaws – also second on its home floor.
 
Riley Krenek and Victoria Hamilton paced the Blossoms in kills with 14 and 10 respectively. Kalin Duncan led the squad with 41 assists and added five total blocks.
 
Mississippi College returns to action on Friday, Sept. 10 as it travels to Tyler, Texas for the Dakota's Patriot Classic on the campus of the University of Texas at Tyler. MC opens at 10 a.m. with a match against Harding University.
 

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KEY NOTES
- Platt has four, 20-plus kill matches in her career, including a program record 23 set at Southern Arkansas in her freshman season.
- Laurendine's 47 assists surpassed her previous total of 38 set at Union on March 20, 2021. The total is the most in the program's Division II history and third in its overall history. The program record is 50 set by Lauryn Hamrick on Oct. 29, 2011 vs. Huntingdon.
- Beber's 34 digs are the second most by any Choctaw under head coach Shawna Laurendine. It sits second by 40 posted by Julia Martin against Spring Hill College on Sept. 10, 2019.
- Freshmen Lydia Paulette and Eve Mixon made their Mississippi College debuts in the match.