Mississippi Sunday rundown: Jackson State and Valley rally as volleyball playoffs advance
Two Mississippi SWAC teams delivered striking Saturday football comebacks, while an unbeaten high school volleyball team kept its postseason moving. Jackson State rallied in Mobile, Mississippi Valley State erased a much larger deficit at home, and a ranked Gulf Coast community college team survived a high-scoring game. This Sunday edition draws on original reports published from 4:45 p.m. Saturday to 4:45 p.m. Sunday, Central time.
Mississippi News
The eligible Mississippi News Group posts in this window were earlier aggregate briefings and Saturday's news-and-sports rundown. No standalone news article met this edition's source and publication-time rules, so this section does not repeat those briefings or treat their older source material as newly published reporting.
Mississippi Sports
Jackson State turns an 11-point deficit into a Gulf Coast Challenge win
Jackson State trailed Alabama A&M by 11 points in the fourth quarter Saturday but won the Gulf Coast Challenge 31-28 in Mobile, Alabama. Sports Mississippi reports that the Tigers scored 14 unanswered points in less than three minutes after falling behind. Its account places Jackson State behind with 8:22 left, making the late scoring burst the decisive turn. The win kept the Tigers unbeaten in Southwestern Athletic Conference play, according to the report. The source does not identify the players who scored during the rally, so this rundown does not assign those points to anyone.
Valley erases 24-point deficit for first SWAC victory
Mississippi Valley State produced another conference comeback, beating Prairie View A&M 28-27 at Rice-Totten Stadium. The Delta Devils had trailed by 24 points, Sports Mississippi reports, before completing the one-point win. The result gave Valley its first SWAC victory of the season, according to the school's account carried by the site. That deficit and the final margin make this one of the day's most consequential Mississippi results; the available report does not supply a scoring sequence, so the exact path back is left unstated.
Alcorn's fourth-quarter lead slips away at Grambling
The other side of a dramatic SWAC finish belonged to Alcorn State. The Braves lost 63-59 at Grambling State after building a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter. Sports Mississippi says Alcorn had earlier overcome two separate 14-point deficits and scored 38 points in the second half, but Grambling mounted the final rally. Those swings make the score more than a routine high-scoring result. The source does not give a play-by-play or name the late scorers, so the report is best read as an account of the changing lead and final outcome.
No. 2 Gulf Coast holds off Jones on the road
No. 2 Mississippi Gulf Coast beat Jones College 41-34 Saturday afternoon at Sim Cooley Field in Ellisville. Jones compiled 685 yards of offense and recovered from an early two-touchdown deficit, according to Sports Mississippi. Gulf Coast answered each challenge to preserve the seven-point win in Jones' Homecoming game. The yardage shows how much pressure the visitors faced despite their ranking; it does not by itself establish how individual drives ended. The source summary offers no player statistics or conference standings, and none are inferred here.
East Union stays perfect in volleyball playoffs
East Union swept Kemper County 3-0 to reach 34-0 and advance in the Class 2A postseason, leading Sports Mississippi's selected playoff results. Walnut also swept Leland, extending its winning streak to ten and moving to 29-4, with East Webster next. In Class 4A, Ripley beat North Pontotoc 3-1 and advanced to face Itawamba Agricultural. The Class 1A bracket produced a meeting between Tupelo Christian Prep and Hickory Flat after both recorded straight-set wins. These are selected verified Saturday results, not a complete statewide scoreboard, and East Union's unbroken season is the clearest statewide thread among them.
Ole Miss women take Blue Gray tennis title
Ole Miss women's tennis won the Blue Gray Tennis Classic Saturday in Montgomery, Alabama, defeating top-seeded Wake Forest 4-3 in the championship match. Junior Alice Battesti was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, Sports Mississippi reports. Beating the top seed by a single match made the championship a narrow team result as well as a notable individual honor. The site report does not give the singles and doubles score breakdown, so this summary does not attribute the deciding point to a player.
Delta State shuts out Shorter
Delta State beat Shorter 23-0 Saturday night in Cleveland, bringing the Statesmen to 2-2. Sports Mississippi describes a strong rushing attack and defensive effort in the home shutout at Parker Field at McCool Stadium. The win put Delta State back at an even record after four games; the available article does not identify individual rushers, tacklers or scoring drives. The shutout is the verifiable distinction, and the summary stops there rather than filling those gaps with assumptions.
Millsaps tops No. 7 Trinity, then falls to Southwestern
Millsaps volleyball beat No. 7 Trinity in five sets Friday at the Hangar Dome in Jackson, then lost to Southwestern in four sets Saturday. The Trinity ranking is identified by Sports Mississippi as the AVCA-Taraflex Division III poll ranking. Taken together, the two results show both a significant upset and a quick reversal across the weekend. The source offers no set scores or individual performances, so the win and loss are reported at the level the article supports.
Featured image: Jackson State–Alabama A&M pregame matchup graphic from October 1, 2026. This is a file graphic, not a photograph of Saturday's game. Credit: Jackson State Athletics.
