BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team beat in-state rival New Orleans Tuesday night, 15-9, 16-14, 16-14, to extend its winning streak to a season-long three matches.
The win, which is the second for the Tigers over the Privateers this season, improves LSU to 10-8 on the year. New Orleans falls to 11-9.
LSU rallied in both games two and three from deficits of at least five points to steal the match from visiting UNO. The Privateers actually held game points in both of those games, but were unable to capitalize.
“UNO has everything to gain and nothing to lose in these matches and they played like it. That was a great effort by them,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “They out played us. They did a better job of playing their game than we did of playing ours. And that is the bad thing in this match. We responded to what they did instead of making them respond to us.”
The Tigers managed to win the match with defense as they were outkilled, 58-56, and outblocked, 10-9, by a gritty UNO team. As a team, LSU recorded 73 digs in just three games, which is two short of a school-record for digs in a three-game match.
“I don’t think we were prepared for this match and we were lucky to get out of it, but a win is a win and we are happy to have it,” said Flory.
Leading the way defensively was middle blocker Meagan Davis, who had a match-high 17 digs. Setter Katie Kubena scored 14 digs while outside hitter Jennifer Hampton and defensive specialist Jenny Greco each had 13.
Davis added 10 kills and a .350 attack percentage to help a Tiger offense that hit for a .226 clip on the match.
Hampton, along with Meghan Bedford, led the squad as each notched 18 kills. Hampton’s performance gives her a double-double for the seventh time in eight matches, including the last five straight.
The match was televised for tape delay broadcast and can be seen on Baton Rouge Cable Channel 11 on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. and Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m.
LSU will take to the road this weekend for Southeastern Conference matches at Florida and Georgia. The Tigers will face the Gators at 6 p.m. Friday and the Bulldogs at 1 p.m. on Sunday.