GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The LSU volleyball team’s Southeastern Conference Tournament run ended on Sunday in the championship match as top-seeded and 10th-ranked Florida downed the Tigers, 15-5, 15-3 15-10.
LSU, the lowest seed to ever reach the final at No. 7, was knocked out of the tournament by the Gators for the second consecutive season. With the win, Florida earns the SEC’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament which begins in two weeks.
“Florida showed today that they are the premier team in the conference and that (the other 10 teams) are chasing them,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “But I am proud of what this team accomplished this weekend in getting to the finals. I think we did as well as we could have done.”
As expected, Gator players dominated the All-Tournament team, placing three players on the six-woman squad: Benavia Jenkins, Nicole McCray, and Aury Cruz.
Cruz, the tournament MVP, led Florida in the championship match with 12 kills while hitting for a .304 clip. Hartley and McCray were just behind with nine and eight, respectively. As a team the Gators hit .352 for the match and had 48 kills, compared to LSU’s -.009 attack percentage and 23 kills.
“With Aury Cruz coming to Florida early this year, it really boosted them. But they have so many weapons offensively that they become really hard to stop,” Flory said.
LSU’s Lauren Cuyler, who led the tournament in blocks, earned all-tournament team honors along with Tennessee’s Ariana Wilson and Georgia’s Stacey Buerger. Cuyler is the first LSU player to earn the honor since Dani Reis and Angie Miller did in 1992.
“Cuyler had a great weekend. She is a player that moved to middle blocker in the middle of the season and still doesn’t really know what she is doing. She has just been a great athlete making plays for us,” Flory said of LSU’s All-Tournament team member.
Florida, which won its SEC-record eighth tournament title, jumped all over LSU early in game one, taking a 7-1 lead. The Tigers would close to 7-4 before the Gators scored six unanswered to put the game out of reach.
Carrying its momentum over from the first frame, Florida raced out to a 13-0 lead in game two. The Tigers would score a few late before the Gators finished off the game and took a two-games-to-none lead.
Looking to rally, LSU opened game three by taking a 5-2 lead, which turned eventually stretched into a 10-6 advantage. However, Florida was too strong as it ran off nine straight points to win the match.
Meagan Davis led LSU in the match with nine kills and three blocks.
LSU will compete in the Houston Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend with Houston, SMU and Texas-San Antonio. LSU faces SMU in the first round at 5:30 p.m.