BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team was unable to complete a weekend sweep of Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas on Sunday as the Tigers fell to the LadyBacks on senior day, 3-15, 15-4, 15-7, 15-9.
The loss drops LSU to 13-14 on the year, including a 6-9 conference mark. The Tigers, who finished third in the SEC Western Division, will be the No. 7 seed in the SEC Tournament which begins this Friday in Gainesville, Fla. Arkansas moves to 15-13 overall and 9-6 in the SEC.
LSU became just the fourth Western Division team to ever beat Arkansas on Friday in Fayetteville, but was unable to put together two wins in a row on Sunday. The LadyBacks have still never been swept by a division opponent in a season.
“I am really disappointed about the way we came back after winning on Friday night,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “We did a very poor job of executing on our side of the net and they did a very good job of executing on their side of the net. This could a really good match, but we chose not to take it to that level.”
The difference in the match was Arkansas’ offensive efficiency in games two, three and four. After a negative attacking percentage in the opening frame, the LadyBacks hit at least .300 in the final three games.
“On defense I don’t think we did a very good job,” Flory said. “We just did not come prepared to win the match. We were caught up in the emotion of everything going on.”
The match marked the final home appearance for four LSU players: Christy Carr, Jill Lytle, Lauren O?Connor and Claudia Rodriguez.
“Senior night is a really emotional time for everybody and we played like we had a ton of pressure on us instead of playing just to play the game.”
Early on in the match, it looked as though the Tigers would continue their run from Friday night as they dominated game one. LSU hit .400 for the game and held Arkansas to a -.083 attack percentage with four blocks in the game.
“I think what we tried to accomplish worked in game one. After game one, we couldn’t get back in that rhythm and attack them. Our serving was key and it became real passive and we started giving away points. When you give away points to a good team you are going to lose the match,” added Flory.
After that it was all LadyBacks. Despite not recording a kill in game one, Eftila Tanellari finished with a match-high 22 kills while hitting for a .314 clip. She was also one of three Arkansas players with 16 kills, along with Amanda Rudolph and Michelle Coens.
Setter Evgeniya led the defensive surge for the LadyBacks with a match-high 19 digs. She also had 52 assists running the Arkansas offense.
Leading the way for the Tigers was outside hitter Jennifer Hampton who finished with 17 kills and 14 digs, both match highs. Meagan Davis had another productive night with 13 kills and five blocks.
The Tigers will face SEC Western Division champion Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Friday at 6:30 p.m. CST.