BATON ROUGE — Despite 21 kills and seven blocks by Regan Hood, the LSU volleyball team fell to Florida A&M in five games, 24-30, 34-32, 26-30, 30-24, 15-8, in the home opener in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Friday night.
With the loss the Tigers fell to 5-2 on the year, while Florida A&M improved to 3-2. The Rattlerettes are on a roll after recording their first win over a ranked opponent in the program’s history last weekend, defeating No. 22 Louisville in the Courtyard by Marriott Invitational at Georgia Tech.
“This was a tough loss for us,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We will have to use this as a learning experience and become a tougher team from it. You have to credit Florida A&M for playing well and coming out and attacking us. We did not go after them. We played back on defense the entire match and we just can’t do that and expect to win.”
Despite recording their second highest attacking percentage of the season at .271, the Tigers could not overcome 14 service errors and five blocking errors. After pulling away in the first game, the match turned after Florida A&M rallied to take the second game from LSU.
“We gave the match away in game two,” said Flory, “and game two was the match. We gave away too many points on unforced errors and were inefficient in the long rallies. The team that wins the long rallies is the team that wins the matches.”
With the Tigers leading 27-24, Florida A&M took its final timeout of the game. After retuning to action, LSU could not put the match away. A service error and an attacking error by the Tigers put the Rattlerettes back in the game.
LSU had a chance to take the game with match point at 29-28, but a blocking error tied the game and Florida A&M went on to pull it out, 34-32.
The Tigers pulled out the third game, 30-26, before dropping the fourth game, 30-24. Florida A&M dominated LSU in the fifth game to take the match, 15-8.
Hood recorded a career high with 21 kills with a .400 hitting percentage, topping her previous high of 12 kills against Tulane in the Tiger’s last match. She also led the match with seven blocks, including six block assists.
Jennifer Hampton led the match with 28 kills. The senior also recorded 12 kills for her 40th career double-double on a .379 hitting percentage. Lauren Cuyler was the only other Tiger in double-figures with 12 kills.
Katie Kubena led LSU with 16 digs, followed by Jenny Greco and Hampton with 12 and Kyra Lancon with 11.
The Tigers will now travel to Tallahassee, Fla., for the Florida State Invitational. LSU will face Brown University, Louisiana-Lafayette and Florida State next weekend.