BATON ROUGE — As gusty wind and rain from Tropical Storm Isidore hit much of south Louisiana, the Tiger volleyball team opened Southeastern Conference play, falling to defending Western Division champion Arkansas, 24-30, 30-19, 30-28, 30-25, in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Wednesday afternoon.
Concern over the weather forced the match to be moved up from its original 7 p.m. start time to a 3 p.m. first serve. The loss dropped the Tigers to 7-4 overall and 0-1 in the SEC, while Arkansas improves to 10-3 overall and 1-0 in league play.
The Tigers return to action against Tennessee in the Assembly Center on Friday at 7 p.m. Fans are encouraged to come out early for the “Orange Spike Tailgate Party” featuring “Spike the Vols” cups and orange drink. The tailgate party begins at 5:30 p.m. The match will be televised tape delayed on FoxSports Southwest, Baton Rouge cable channel 37, on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
LSU finished the match with 55 kills and 59 digs, while Arkansas recorded 69 kills and 76 digs. The Tigers did do a good job at the net, recording 10 blocks, but the Lady’Backs matched LSU with 12 blocks of their own. Neither team hit with much efficiency, as the Tigers finished hitting at a .190 clip and Arkansas recorded a .202 attacking percentage.
“The difference in the match was that we did a poor job of running our offense,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “To also be outdug by as many as we were was a key factor. There is no excuse for us to ever be out dug in a match, but to be out dug by 17 was a serious problem.”
The Tigers got 12 of their 15 kills in the first game from Jennifer Hampton and Lauren Cuyler to jump out to an early one-game lead. Arkansas rebounded from a .081 hitting performance to hit .326 in the second game and tie the match at a game apiece.
In the third game, the Tigers jumped out to a 15-11 lead, but Arkansas rallied back to tie the game at 22. Arkansas then took the lead and never relinquished it, although the Tigers did tie the game four more times. With the match knotted at 28, Arkansas got a kill by Sara Kincaid to give the Lady’Backs game point and then got a block by Michaela Koumarova and Libby Windell to take the game.
After LSU took a 10-8 lead in the fourth game, Arkansas went on a 14-0 run to break the game open, taking the 22-10 advantage. The Tigers rallied with a 13-3 run to cut the lead to three points, 26-23, but could not hold off the Lady’Backs, who took the match on a kill by Kincaid, who finished with 17 kills on the day.
“We put together a great push at the end of the fourth game,” said Flory, “but we have got to fight all the way through the match. We let them get too far ahead and we could not come back from the hole we put ourselves into.”
Senior Katie Kubena became just the third player in LSU history to reach 3,000 career assists as she recorded 39 assists in the match. For her career, she now has 3,028 assists, behind only Danie Reis with 6,379 and Lauren O’Connor with 3,740.
Jennifer Hampton led the Tigers with 17 kills and 16 digs for her ninth double-double of the year. Kubena also recorded a double-double, recording 13 digs to go along with her 39 assists. She also had three blocks on the day.
Lauren Cuyler was the only other Tiger in double-figures with 15 kills. Jenny Greco added 11 digs and Rachel Vogt led LSU with four blocks, including two solo blocks.