BATON ROUGE — Senior Meagan Davis recorded the first triple-double of her career to lead LSU to a 30-17, 27-30, 34-32, 30-18, victory over Southeastern Conference Western Division foe Ole Miss on Friday night.
Davis, who turned 22 years old on Friday, registered 20 kills, 10 digs and 10 blocks on the night for the first triple-double at LSU in a decade. The 20 kills is a career-high while the 10 blocks is a season high for the Kingwood, Texas, native. She also had a .442 hitting percentage on the night.
“I think a triple-double for Meagan on her 22nd birthday is great. What a better gift for herself,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “She has to be a factor for us and we kind of lost her through the last three weeks but she has gotten back in her groove recently.”
Slightly overshadowed by Davis’ performance was the one of Jennifer Hampton who had 14 kills and a match-high 20 digs to go along with a career-high six blocks, helping LSU outblock the Rebels 15-8. the 15 blocks is a season-high for the Tigers.
“We dug a ton of balls and Ole Miss forced us to do that. But they are a great defensive team as well,” Flory noted. “We did a better job of blocking than they did and I think that was ultimately the difference in the match.”
The Tigers came out sluggish in hitting just .118 and .159 in the opening two games as Ole Miss forced a 1-1 tie after two.
Jamie Burns, who had 11 kills and 17 digs in the match, paced the Rebels in the second game with six kills and seven digs. Elena Garcia also notched a double-double for Ole Miss with 13 kills and 17 digs.
“We didn’t come in very prepared tonight and Ole Miss played much better this time than the last time we played them,” Flory said of the slow start by the Tigers. “I think they really challenged us and forced us to do some things we aren’t real good at, so they made us better tonight. They played harder than we played at times and that is disappointing. But the good thing is we won.”
Late in the third game came the turning point in the match. The Rebels led 29-27 and had two match points, but were unable to execute on either. After squandering another match point at 30-29, Ole Miss allowed the Tigers to steal the game, 34-32, and a 2-1 lead.
Game four was over from the beginning as LSU raced out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back in clinching the match. The Tigers .405 hitting percentage in the game helped them to a .213 clip for the match.
Davis was unstoppable in the fourth game, picking up nine of her kills on just 11 swings. Fellow middle blocker Lauren Cuyler was also dominating late, hitting for eight of her 11 kills in the final two games.
LSU will be back in action on Sunday when Mississippi State comes to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for a 2 p.m. match.