TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The LSU volleyball team could never get a run going as it fell to Alabama, 30-23, 30-17, 30-25, on Friday night in Southeastern Conference action on the road at the CAVE.
With the loss the Tigers fell to 9-6 overall and 1-4 in SEC play. Alabama improved to 13-3 on the year and 3-2 in league action.
“I’m disappointed with our performance tonight,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “I thought we could come in here and do some positive things, but unfortunately we were not successful. We did not take care of things on our side of the net and that’s something we have got to do. Now we have to just regroup for our match on Sunday against a much-improved Auburn team.”
LSU was led by Regan Hood with eight kills and a .208 hitting percentage. Hood is now just 16 kills away from becoming the 13th player in school history to record 1,000 career kills. Additionally, with one block solo, she now has 69 solo blocks for her career, tying her for 10th in LSU school history.
Jelena Mijatovic also had seven kills, while Kassi Mikulik with six. Mijatovic led the Tigers with seven digs, followed by Mikulik with six. Daniela Romero led the team with four blocks, tying her season best, followed by Ivana Kuzmic with three.
Alabama was paced by Julie Farley and Erin Heffner with 13 kills each. Crystal Hudson was also in double-figures with 10 kills. Kelley Potter led the Crimson Tide with 10 digs, while Farley led the team with five blocks.
In the first game, there were six ties before Alabama took the lead for good at 10-9. The Crimson Tide pulled ahead by four but the Tigers fought back to get the match within three. Alabama stretched its lead to as many as eight before LSU got back within six, but could get no closer as a Crimson Tide kill and an error by the Tigers gave the first game to Alabama, 40-23.
Game two involved some unusual antics as the Crimson Tide elephant mascot was escorted out of the gym after climbing onto the official’s platform midway through the game. Alabama took the lead early in the game and the Tigers could never recover as the Tide went on to take the two-game advantage, 30-17.
In the third game, LSU quickly took a 3-0 lead but Alabama came back to tie it at three all. The Tigers again took a three-point lead, 10-7, but the Crimson Tide tied it up again at 13 before taking the lead for good, 14-13. Alabama by as many as seven and LSU fought off three game points before finally falling 30-25 on a rotation violation.
LSU will continue its road trip through Alabama as the Tigers take on Auburn on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Student Activities Center. Auburn was a close 2-3 loser to Arkansas on Friday night at home.