NEW ORLEANS — The LSU volleyball team split two matches on Saturday at the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic as it fell to Baylor, 30-27, 30-17, 30-25, and beat in-state rival New Orleans, 30-24, 30-28, 30-12.
The Tigers moved to 2-1 on the season and finished second in the tournament. Facing New Orleans, the LSU defense was dominant, recording six blocks and holding the Privateers to a .042 attack percentage for the match.
Jennifer Hampton’s 14 kills and 10 digs, both team highs, paced the Tigers. Meagan Davis added 11 kills to go along with two blocks. Jenny Greco also had 10 digs in the match. Davis hit .476 in the match as she had just one error against her kill total. Mary Wanko led New Orleans with 11 kills.
In game one, the Tigers held the Privateers to a -.023 attack percentage and notched four blocks. Meanwhile, Hampton recorded four kills in the game to lead LSU.
New Orleans looked to rally in game two, racing out to an early lead. The Tigers trailed 28-23 late in the game before running off seven unanswered points on the serve of Greco. Davis’ five kills in led the way.
“Thank God for Jenny Greco today. She was great serving and great on defense,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “She certainly saved one game for us and kept us out of extra games.”
Game three was all Tigers as LSU jumped out to a 9-2 lead and coasted to a 30-12 win. The Tigers hit .529 in the game with 20 kills to just two errors.
“I challenged the team to put a better product on the court in game three,” said Flory of the dominating performance in game three. “Hampton raised her level tremendously. Our defense was better. We were tired, but the good thing is we were able to still dictate plays.”
The telling stat in the Baylor match was the Bears 56 kills to the Tigers 36. Baylor also was more efficient than LSU, hitting .298 compared to .198.
“We didn’t do a very good job of controlling our side of the court. We were to caught up with watching things go on rather than making things go on,” said Flory. “Our ball control wasn’t consistent enough to get the ball to our middle blockers enough to be successful.”
Cuyler, who played only two games before coming out due to shoulder pain, had five kills on just seven attempts in the match. Cuyler also had four blocks.
Rachel Vogt led the Tigers nine kills while Hampton added eight. Meghan Bedford had seven kills and a team-high nine digs.
“It was a good outing for Rachel. She did a lot of things well and earned the opportunity to be on the court in later matches,” Flory added.
Davis had six kills on 13 attempts with no errors, marking the second straight game she has not had a hitting error.
Three Baylor players had double-figure kills: Stevie Nicholas with 13, Tatiana Kenon with 12 and Tisha Schwarz with 10. Nicolas added 10 digs for a double-double.
The turning point in the match came with LSU leading 26-25 in game one and Davis serving. Following a Baylor time out, Davis served the ball into the net and the Bears took five of the next six points.
“I think that blew us out of the water. I am most disappointed in our serving. We broke down in it and that is the only thing we can really control,” said Flory. “We gave them key points in serving errors and you can’t do that after 20 points in a close match.”
The Tigers will next be in action on Friday, September 7 at 4 p.m. when it faces Georgetown in the Georgia Tech Classic in Atlanta, Ga.