BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team rebounded from its Friday night loss to South Carolina with a 15-7, 15-5, 15-7 win over Stephen F. Austin on Sunday afternoon at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers improve to 5-6 on the year while Stephen F. Austin falls to 6-7.
“This was a good turning point for us,” said LSU coach Fran Flory, whose team had lost two straight coming into the match. “We did some really good things especially on defense. They are the first team that has run a fast offense that we have had an answer for by blocking and playing defense behind our blocks. We are very happy about that.”
LSU dominated the LadyJacks both offensively and defensively as the Tigers hit .333 with 53 kills while Stephen F. Austin was only able to manage two blocks to try and slow the Tiger attack. On defense, LSU blocked back nine balls while holding the LadyJacks to just a .128 attack percentage for the match.
Pacing the Tigers on offense were outside hitters Jennifer Hampton and Meghan Bedford. Hampton had a team high 13 kills en route to a season high .414 attack percentage. Bedford was equally as effective as she killed 12 balls while hitting .391 for the match. Setter Katie Kubena ran the offense to near perfection as she recorded 41 assists.
“Meghan Bedford’s effort was huge for us. If we can get her to perform on that type of level then that is going to really help us. She and Katie got in good sync and that helped her be very efficient. And Hampton did a nice job of hitting shots and putting balls away,” said Flory.
For the second consecutive match, senior outside hitter Jill Lytle provided the Tigers a spark on offense and defense. The Richmond, Texas, native recorded eight kills and seven digs for LSU.
“Jill Lytle came in and showed some great leadership and pointed everyone in the right direction during the key points,” Flory said. “That is what we have been lacking and she gave us that today.”
LSU travels to Auburn this Thursday at 7 p.m. for its second conference match of the season.