BATON ROUGE — For the second straight match, the LSU volleyball team dropped a five-game heartbreaker, falling to Ole Miss, 20-30, 30-13, 30-13, 28-30, 11-15, on Sunday afternoon in the Maravich Center.
With the loss, the Tigers fell to 9-5 overall and 1-3 in Southeastern Conference play. The Rebels improved to 8-7 on the year and 1-3 in league play.
“We’ve got to go back to the gym and get better,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We just aren’t tough enough right now. In crucial situations, we had the right players on the court, but they did not have the right mentality. Our key players need to get more confident because right now they don’t have that confidence. We’ve get in the gym and figure it out.”
Despite the loss, LSU is only two games behind Arkansas in the Western Division standings. The Lady’Backs were 3-1 winners over Mississippi State on Sunday and are currently 3-1 in league play. The Tigers are also just one game behind Alabama and Mississippi State in the standings with a trip to play the Crimson Tide next weekend.
“The SEC is still a wide open race,” said Flory. “The league has gotten much better from top to bottom. We just have to focus on our matches and take care of what we can control the rest of the way.”
After losing game one, LSU bounced back to dominate the next two games. The fourth game was a close one as it saw several lead changes before Ole Miss finally pulled ahead with the final two points. The Tigers led most of the fifth game before the Rebels tied it up and scored the last four points of the match for the win.
For the second straight match, junior Ivana Kuzmic recorded double-figures in blocks, posting a season-best 11 blocks in the match. Along with 11 kills, she posted her second double-double of the season.
Sophomore Kassi Mikulik also posted her fifth consecutive double-double, recording a team-best 12 kills with 12 digs. Junior Jelena Mijatovic posted 10 digs, while tying her season best with seven aces, tying her for the third most in a five-game match in school history.
Senior Regan Hood also posted 10 kills, while recording a career-best .769 hitting percentage. Freshman Vanessa Freeman saw the most action of her career, posting nine kills while knocking back six blocks. Rachel Pittman led the team in digs with 14, her seventh double-figure dig match this season.
Jaclyn Toohey led Ole Miss with 11 kills and 10 digs, while Kristen Carroll also posted 11 kills. Elena Garcia led the Rebels with 11 digs, followed by Tara Langley with 10. Tricia Eble and Lauren Moffett each recorded a team-best four blocks for Ole Miss.
After trailing by as many as 16, 21-5, LSU rallied to get as close as nine before Ole Miss closed out the first game, 30-20. In almost a complete reversal of game one, the Tigers dominated the Bulldogs in the second game. LSU led 6-1 early on and extended the lead to 21-8. The Tigers tied the match at one game each on a block, 30-13.
The third game gave LSU its best hitting percentage of the season, recording 17 kills and no errors for a .773 clip. Leading 10-7, the Tigers went on a 13-1 run to pull ahead, 23-8. LSU closed it out on a service error by Ole Miss, 30-13.
The fourth game proved to be the turning point of the match. Whenever LSU seemed to get some momentum going, it quickly ended, either by a service error or an attacking error. There were several controversial calls by the officials mixed into the game that also seemed to break up the pace. The scored was tied 14 times in a game that saw seven lead changes. The final tie came at 28 all before back-to-back kills by Jaclyn Toohey gave the Rebels the game, 30-28.
In the decisive fifth game, LSU jumped out to an 8-5 lead. With the Tigers leading 10-7, Ole Miss rallied back with three straight points to tie it up at 10 all. After being tied at 11, the Rebels took the lead for good and scored the final four points of the match to win 15-11.
LSU returns to action next weekend on the road against Alabama and Auburn. The Tigers will face the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa on Friday at 7 p.m. before battling AU on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Ole Miss def. LSU 30-20, 13-30, 13-30, 30-28, 15-11
Ole Miss (8-7, 1-3 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Jaclyn Toohey 11-2-1; Kristen Carroll 11-0-2; Elena Garcia 8-0-1; Katie Kramer 7-0-2; Nikki Hill 4-0-1; Lauren Moffett 3-0-4; Jennifer McGowan 3-1-0; Cory Tidwell 1-0-3; Tricia Eble 1-0-4; Ashleigh Shear 0-3-1; Totals 49-6-11.0. (Assists) – Ashleigh Shear 22; Jennifer McGowan 18. (Dig leaders) – Elena Garcia 11; Jaclyn Toohey 10; Tara Langley 10; Jennifer McGowan 9
LSU (9-5, 1-3 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Kassi Mikulik 12-1-2; Ivana Kuzmic 11-2-11; Jelena Mijatovic 10-7-4; Regan Hood 10-0-5; Vanessa Freeman 9-0-6; Daniela Romero 7-3-2; Lauren Leaumont 3-0-0; Rachel Pittman 1-1-0; Melody Clark 1-0-0; Beth Cowley 0-2-0; Totals 64-16-16.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 47. (Dig leaders) – Rachel Pittman 14; Kassi Mikulik 12