BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team rebounded from an emotional Friday night loss to Arkansas State on Saturday morning in the Tiger Classic with a 15-12, 15-6, 15-5, win over in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana.
LSU (4-4) relied on its defense for the second match in a row as the Tigers recorded 68 digs in just three games compared to only 54 for the Lady Lions. Outside hitter Jennifer Hampton led LSU with 20 digs, good enough for fourth best in LSU history for a three-game match.
“I think the thing we have gotten out of this tournament so far is that we have learned that we can battle defensively by keeping the ball in play,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. Southeastern Louisiana is a team that keeps you off balanced with their offense, but I think we did a great job of playing in our system and being disciplined.Offensively, the Tigers got better and better as the match went along. In game one, LSU could only manage a .206 attack percentage, but improved to a .275 clip in game two. By game three, everything was in sync as the Tigers blistered Southeastern Louisiana for a .457 attack percentage with 17 kills to only one error.
“Our offense got in sync and we were able to do a lot of things,” said Flory. “Jill (Lytle) came in and did a great job filling in for Lauren Cuyler. Meghan Bedford got back in the flow and Katie (Kubena) got more effieicnt running the offense. Those are all good things that happened.”
Five players had double-digit kills in a balanced Tiger attack. Lytle, Hampton and Meagan Davis all recorded 12 kills while Rachel Vogt had 11 and Bedford had 10. With her 12 kills and 20 digs, Hampton notched a double-double for the third time in four matches.
The Tigers face Texas Tech in the final match of the tournament at 5 p.m.