TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama volleyball made its return to Foster Auditorium after three-straight road matches with a four-set win over Mississippi State Wednesday night, falling in the first set 21-25 before winning three straight by scores of 25-20, 25-20 and 25-21.Alabama (14-5, 3-3 SEC) hit .315 as a team, its highest hitting percentage in SEC play this season, while limiting Mississippi State (11-9, 3-3 SEC) to a .208 clip. Leah Lawrence led the way with a season-high .600 hitting percentage and was equally strong at the service line, scoring four aces for the second-straight match. Brittany Thomas posted her second double-double of the season, finishing with 11 kills and 15 digs along with a season-best .409 hitting percentage. Quincey Gary, making her second start at libero, led the defensive effort in the back row with a career-best 22 digs.The two teams battled back and forth early in set two until Mississippi State scored three-straight points to break a 10-10 tie, moving ahead 13-10 as Alabama called a timeout. The Bulldogs maintained its lead for the remainder of the set, leading by the same margin late at the Tides second timeout, 23-20. MSU held on to win by four points, 25-21.Tied at 10-10 again in set two, it was Alabama that began to pull away this time, scoring five unanswered points to lead 15-10 at the media timeout. Alabama continued to extend its lead, using a 7-4 run to move ahead 22-14 before Mississippi State was forced to take its first team timeout. The Tide reached set point, 24-17, but the Bulldogs battled to keep the set going with three-straight points as Alabama looked to stop the momentum with a timeout leading 24-20. Krystal Rivers ended the set on the next rally with her 18th kill of the match to win, 25-20, and even the match at 1-1.Mississippi State briefly pulled ahead 4-3 early in the third, but momentum quickly swung back Alabamas way courtesy of a 7-2 run to lead 10-6 at the Bulldogs first timeout. MSU came out of the break with four-straight points to tie it back up at 10-10 and eventually retake the lead at 12-11. The lead was short-lived as the Tide went back on top 14-13 and continued to pull ahead after three-straight service aces by Lawrence to make it 17-13 as the Bulldogs took a timeout. Lawrence added a fourth-straight ace after the break and a block by Rivers made it 19-13 before Mississippi State finally earned a kill to stop the scoring streak. With Alabama leading 23-17, three-straight points by MSU cut the lead in half and forced the Tide to burn its first team timeout. The Tide scored back-to-back points following the break to win, 25-20, and take a 2-1 lead.The Bulldogs scored the first two points of the fourth set but Alabama rallied in a big way, scoring seven unanswered points to pull away 7-2 and force a frustrated timeout for Mississippi State. The Tide added three more out of the break to make it a 10-2 game and leading by the same margin later, 16-8, Mississippi State cut the deficit down to four points at 18-14 but a Bulldog service error and a kill by Rivers gave the Tide a six-point lead at the 20-point mark, 20-14, as Mississippi State took its final team timeout. Another kill by Rivers made it 21-14 before MSU responded with four-straight points to draw within three and force the Tide to take its first team timeout. Alabama eventually reached set point, 24-20, and after a Rivers attack error to make it 24-21 she came back with her 31st kill of the match Next up,Alabama faces Missouri (15-3, 6-0 SEC) on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 1:30 p.m. CT in Foster Auditorium. The match will be the Tides annual Power of Pink event, an athletics initiative to raise breast cancer research awareness. Chiefs Super Bowl Jerseys .C. -- Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA hes still amazed at some of the things LeBron James does. Charvarius Ward Super Bowl Jersey .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. http://www.thechiefsshoponline.com/Youth-mecole-hardman-chiefs-jersey/ . 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SOLDIER FIELD, Chicago -- Ireland coach Joe Schmidt put their historic victory over the All Blacks down to the strength of character in their heroic side.Ireland hadnt beaten the All Blacks in 111 years until they met under the Chicago sun on Saturday afternoon in Soldier Field and though they had limited time together in the week building up to the Test, Schmidt said they stuck to the tried and tested to secure their history-making triumph.I hoped that was coming -- the players determined that it did arrive, Schmidt said. The All Blacks were missing a number of second-rows and that allowed us access to the game and gave us the position we needed to put pressure on.They got a few injuries during the game and when you have a loose-forward on the wing that gave us a bit of confidence. Over the half the lads were playing PRO12 rugby last weekend and to click everything together as quickly as we could was great and we tried to have some consistency with previous combinations to be as cohesive as possible. Sometimes its character more than cohesion and that was evident today.The victory wasnt without its nervous spells. The All Blacks came storming back in the second half in a manner reminiscent to their fightback in 2013 when they turned Irelands 19-0 lead on its head to win in the last play of the game in Dublin.Those memories wouldve been in the back of the Ireland players minds but they stuck together with the bench giving them a fresh impetus in front of thousands of Irish fans at Soldier Field.Schmidt said Chicago will always be a special place for us and the game had added significance as it was Irelands first Test since thee death of Munster coach Anthony Foley.dddddddddddd.The team paid tribute to the late, great Foley by forming a No.8 to face the haka. A lot has been done to pay tribute to Axel, said captain Rory Best.It is the national teams first time together since his passing and we felt it was the right thing to do and we put the Munster boys at the front to lead it. It was our way as a national team to show a mark of respect to Axel.Best added that the win was in part down to the amount of off-field work the team did this week due to their lack of training sessions.Thereve been a lot of great teams and players and we havent been clinical enough to finish it. We lost it in the last quarter in 2013 but the subs came on with Joey and the front-row gave us a platform. All of that contributed and we are a tight group, we did a lot of homework.Ireland will celebrate the triumph in Chicago on Saturday night and on the plane back home on Sunday with Schmidt saying they will lift their self-imposed alcohol ban. But Best knows it will soon be back to business as usual with Canada lying in wait next weekend.You have to take a moment when you create history -- knowing Joe itll be a brief moment, Best said. Its quite hard to sit here and its a massive mark of respect for the All Blacks that it means so much to us.Theyre such a quality side and theyve shown it this season. To break our duck against that quality of side is massive for us and we want to celebrate that. But we have to be humble to have that respect for them. ' ' '