OXFORD, Miss. — The Ole Miss volleyball team produced a furious rally Friday night to extend LSU’s losing streak to three on Friday night as the Rebels took a 10-15, 11-15, 15-9, 15-10, 15-12 decision in Oxford, Miss.
With the loss, LSU falls to 10-11 on the year, including 4-6 in Southeastern Conference play. Ole Miss improves to 13-123 and 3-7 in the league.
The Rebels trailed two-games-to-none in the match before rallying to win games three and four and force a rally-scoring game five to decide the match.
Game five was a microcosm of the match as LSU jumped out to a 4-1 lead which it quickly extended to 8-3. Ole Miss would not give up though as the Rebels recovered to take the lead at 11-10. It was a lead the they would not relinquish.
The Tigers were their own worst enemy in the fifth game as they had more attacking errors than kills.
Ole Miss started the match slowly but came on in the final three games to finish with a .237 attack percentage for the match. Jaime Burns led the Rebels with 24 kills while Kira Zschau added 22.
LSU featured a balanced attack as five players finished with between 12 and 15 kills in a losing effort. Meagan Davis led the way with 15. Lauren Cuyler had a stellar effort at the net with nine blocks.
Games one and two were almost exact replicas with LSU jumping out to an early lead and then held off an Ole Miss rally attempt at the end to win the game. In the opener, the Tigers led 12-4 when the Rebels made their charge. However, LSU’s lead would never diminish below four as the Tigers took the game.
Meghan Bedford sparked the LSU offense in the game with five kills on only 11 attempts. Leigh Rittner and Kira Zschau each had four kills to lead Ole Miss.
In game two, LSU raced to a 4-0 lead and eventually owned a 14-6 advantage before Ole Miss began to come back. Again, the Rebels could not close any closer than four and the Tigers took a two-games-to-none lead.
LSU was led by Lauren Cuyler and Jennifer Hampton in game two as both notched four kills. Cuyler added two blocks in the game. Jaime Burns was the Rebels go-to player with four kills in the game.
Determined not to go away, Ole Miss opened game three battling LSU evenly. The Rebels took their first lead of any game at 5-4 and extended it slowly throughout the game to extend the match to a fourth game.
Jaime Burns 10 kills in game three led the way for a Rebel offense that hit .333 on the game. Bedford and Meagan Davis each had five kills to lead LSU.
Both teams battled back and forth in an intense game four until the Tigers led 9-8. However, Ole Miss would be in control for the rest of the game, scoring seven of the next eight points. Zschau dominated the game with seven kills on only 10 attempts. Hampton and Davis each recorded five kills in leading LSU in the game.
The Tigers travel to Starkville, Miss., on Sunday for a date with Mississippi State.