BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team will play its third of four Southeastern Conference match in 10 days as the Tigers host Auburn on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center.
LSU dropped a 0-3 decision to Arkansas earlier in the week after posting a 1-1 record last weekend and currently stand at 11-9 overall and 3-7 in the SEC. Auburn swept a pair of matches last weekend and is now 8-10 overall and 3-7 in league play.
“We went into last weekend with a new attitude and we were successful against Kentucky,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Unfortunately we ran into an Arkansas team that played its best match of the year against us on Tuesday. Now, we’ve got to bring back what we were doing well against Kentucky, taking care of the ball and having just having fun on the court, and carry that into our matches this weekend.”
Earlier in the season, the purple and gold defeated AU in Auburn in four games, 30-22, 28-30, 31-29, 30-27. After dominating the first game, the match was much more evenly played the rest of the way. The second and third games were decided on the final swings. LSU held an early lead late in the fourth game, but Auburn came back to make it close before the purple and gold put it away.
“We know that Auburn is a much stronger and more physical team than they have been over the last few seasons,” said Flory. “They had a few good wins last weekend and we know that we are going to have to play well to beat them.”
LSU was led by junior Jelena Mijatovic with 19 kills and 11 digs for what was her fifth double-double of the season. Senior Regan Hood recorded 15 kills for the purple and gold, while sophomore Melody Clark posted 12 kills and a season-best .435 hitting percentage with six blocks.
Junior Ivana Kuzmic led LSU with seven blocks, while also recording nine kills and a season-best .615 hitting percentage. Senior Rachel Pittman tied Mijatovic for the team high with 11 digs.
Auburn was led by Jelena Sekulic with 14 kills, followed by Bailey Veit with 10 kills and five blocks. Jennifer Buckert led AU with eight digs for the match.
Both Tiger teams are rather evenly matched statistically. LSU averages 14.52 kills per game, compared to 14.13 for Auburn, but AU leads in hitting percentage, .221 to .191. Defensively, the purple and gold average 2.68 blocks per game and 13.77 digs per game, both figures ahead of Auburn’s 2.13 blocks per game and 12.16 digs per game averages.
LSU leads the all-time series with Auburn, 23-11, including a 13-4 record at home. The purple and gold have now won six straight over AU and six of the last seven.
After taking on Auburn, LSU will close out its home SEC schedule on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Alabama. The purple and gold were 0-3 losers to the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa earlier this season. Sunday’s match will be televised on FSN Southwest in Baton Rouge (cable channel 38).