BATON ROUGE — Three players recorded double-figures in kills as the LSU volleyball team swept Auburn, 30-24, 30-26, 30-12, on Friday night in the Maravich Center.
With the win, the purple and gold improve to 12-9 on the season and 4-7 in Southeastern Conference play. AU fell to 8-11, 3-8 in league play.
“This was a must win for us,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We had to have this match. We’ve got a lot of must wins coming up. This was a really important match. We didn’t put a lot of emphasis on it. We put emphasis on executing on our side and taking care of the ball.”
As a team, LSU hit .362 for the match, including a .615 hitting percentage in the third game. Sophomore Daniela Romero returned from a back injury to command the offense from the setter position and recorded 42 assists and five kills, while hitting at a .714 clip.
“I think most importantly for us, Dee did a tremendous job running the offense today,” said Flory. “Dee is our offense. It’s like losing your starting quarterback when she goes down. Beth (Cowley) did a great job coming in last week, but she hasn’t really set this offense. It’s a different offense than she’s used to setting. We’ve kind of catered the offense to Dee and decided that we are going to live and die with her and she’s weathered the storm. She’s back and I think she’s healthy again.”
Senior Regan Hood led the match with 15 kills for LSU. Junior Jelena Mijatovic posted 13 kills and a season-best .632 hitting percentage, while recording five service aces, her fourth match this season with five or more aces. The SEC leader is now averaging 0.71 service aces per game.
Sophomore Melody Clark recorded 10 kills for the purple and gold to round out the three players in double figures. Defensively, junior Ivana Kuzmic posted a match-best four blocks, while senior Rachel Pittman was the only player in double-figures with 11 digs.
“We changed our lineup, we moved Regan to the outside and that was a nice change for us,” said Flory. “I think Mel did a great job. I think this was an outstanding performance by Jelena. She hit .632, that’s one of the highest hitting efficiencies of an outside hitter this year. When you are outside and hitting at that level, the goal is usually .225, so she was well above that. Then with her serving, she completely took them out of their offense. When she is on, she is difficult to contain.”
Auburn was led by Ashlee Johns with 11 kills and three blocks, followed by Jennifer Amobi with 11 kills. Bailey Veit led AU with seven digs.
In the first game, LSU led by five midway through, 18-13, before Auburn came back to within two. The purple and gold then went on a 6-3 run to put the game away as LSU took game one, 30-24.
The second game was evenly balanced, as there were seven ties. With the score tied at 24 all, the purple and gold scored six of the final eight points to take the two-game advantage into the locker room, 30-26.
The third game was never a contest. LSU blew open a 9-1 lead before extending it to 14-3. At 24-8, AU battled back to within 15 points, 26-11, before the purple and gold closed the door, 30-12. Allowing Auburn to only score 12 points in the third game marked the third lowest total allowed by LSU since going to rally scoring.
LSU closes out its home SEC schedule on Sunday against Alabama at 2 p.m. in the Maravich Center. The match will be televised live on SEC-TV in Baton Rouge on FSN Southwest (cable channel 38). The purple and gold dropped an 0-3 decision to the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa earlier this season.
LSU def. Auburn 30-24, 30-26, 30-12
Auburn (8-11, 3-8 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Ashlee Johns 12-0-3; Jennifer Amobi 11-0-1; Julie Bosler 7-0-2; Whitney Jacob 3-0-2; Rachel Shanks 3-0-0; Maira Mogollon 1-0-2; Jennifer Buckert 1-0-0; Totals 38-0-7.0. (Assists) – Maira Mogollon 33. (Dig leaders) – Bailey Veit 7; Maira Mogollon 4
LSU (12-9, 4-7 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Regan Hood 15-1-0; Jelena Mijatovic 13-5-1; Melody Clark 10-0-1; Ivana Kuzmic 9-0-4; Daniela Romero 5-0-1; Vanessa Freeman 3-0-3; Totals 55-6-6.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 42. (Dig leaders) – Rachel Pittman 11; Jelena Mijatovic 7