BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team dropped a 15-13, 15-9, 15-7 decision to South Carolina Friday night in each teams’ Southeastern Conference opener.
With the loss, LSU falls to 4-6 on the year and 0-1 in conference play. South Carolina improves to 10-3, including a 1-0 league mark. It is the fifth consecutive season that the Tigers have began SEC play with a loss dating back to 1996.
South Carolina, which features the second best offense in the conference in terms of attack percentage, proved to be too much for LSU offensively as it hit for a .297 clip for the match.
Cally Plummer, the SEC Player of the Week this week, led the Gamecocks with 21 kills and an astounding .606 attack percentage. She added a match-high 19 digs for a double-double. Milica Perovic and Berna Dwyer were not far behind as they recorded 17 and 16 kills while hitting .483 and .414, respectively.
The Tigers were paced by middle blocker Meagan Davis and outside hitter Jennifer Hampton who each had 10 kills on the night. LSU managed only a .156 attack percentage against a Gamecock defense that leads the SEC in digs.
LSU returns to action Sunday at 2 p.m. against Stephen F. Austin, a team that reached the 1999 NCAA tournament.