BATON ROUGE — In the final week of regular season action, the LSU volleyball team travels to take on Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Barnhill Arena.
Arkansas (20-5, 13-1 SEC) has already secured its third straight SEC Western Division title and its ninth in the last 10 years. The Lady’Backs will be no worse than the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament next weekend in Columbia, S.C.
Despite losses on the road at Georgia and No. 3 Florida last weekend, the Tigers (11-16, 6-8 SEC) remain in third in the SEC Western Division behind Arkansas and Alabama, and are tied for sixth overall with South Carolina and Kentucky.
“We need to get on the right side of things,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. ” Every time we have played a high level team this season, be it Kansas State or Nebraska or Hawai’i, we have come back and played well in the following match. Those tough matches have led us into success and hopefully it will once again, coming off our match against Florida.
The results of this week’s play will determine where LSU is seeded in the SEC tournament. The Tigers can be seeded no higher than sixth, but can rank anywhere from sixth to eighth depending on their play and that of both Kentucky and South Carolina.
Florida has all but guaranteed itself the top seed and its 13th consecutive league title with a win over Arkansas last Friday. The Gators have not lost a game in SEC play this season with two matches remaining. With Arkansas as the second seed, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia will battle out for the third, fourth and fifth seeds this week. The Crimson Tide currently hold the one game advantage over both the Bulldogs and the Lady Vols.
In the first meeting with Arkansas, the Tigers were led offensively by junior Regan Hood. The Carrollton, Texas, native led LSU with a career-high 27 kills, which tied her for 10th in LSU history for kills in a four-game match. In addition, she recorded seven digs with two blocks while hitting at a .327 clip.
Defensively, sophomore Megan Heinz recorded 10 total blocks including four block solos. The four solo blocks tied her for ninth in LSU history for a four-game match. Along with a career-high 16 kills and a .353 hitting percentage, the performance marked the first double-double of her career.
Late runs doomed the Tigers late in games against the Lady’Backs. LSU held the 20-15 lead in the first game against Arkansas, but the Lady’Backs came back to tie the game at 22. Tied at 27, Arkansas scored the final three to take the first game. With Arkansas leading by one, 23-22, late in the second game, the Lady’Backs again used a run to put the game away, scoring seven of the next nine points to take the second game.
After falling behind two games to one, the Tigers rallied back in the third game to keep the match alive. Trailing 20-13, LSU countered with its own 7-0 run to tie the game. After five more ties, the Tigers went on to take the game, 31-29.
In the fourth game, the Tigers were able to come back from four down to tie the game at 23, but the Lady’Backs scored seven of the final nine points of the game to take the match, 30-25.
“I thought we matched up well with Arkansas the first time we played them,” said Flory. “I think we just got into some situations where we had a few breakdowns on our side of the net and had we been a little more resilient and a little more experienced we could have bounced back and perhaps changed the outcome of a few games and possibly even the match. Now that we are playing with more experience, I think we have a good opportunity against then if we maintain our ball control and continue to be efficient offensively.”
Following the match with Arkansas, LSU will close out the regular season against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sunday. The Tigers will take on the Crimson Tide in the CAVE at 1:30 p.m. Alabama defeated LSU, 3-0, in Baton Rouge earlier this season.