STARKVILLE, Miss. — Having won six of their last seven matches, the LSU volleyball team will close out the weekend with a Southeastern Conference match at Mississippi State on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Newell-Grissom Building.
The Tigers (19-5, 9-4 SEC) defeated Ole Miss in five games on Friday in Oxford, while the Bulldogs (12-10, 3-9 SEC) dropped a five-game decision to Arkansas at home on Friday. Mississippi State will also complete a match against Georgia Saturday night that was begun in September but called in the third game due to tornados on the MSU campus.
“I think we need to be very focused and prepare in a better manner than we did for Friday night,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “I think we need to regain the aggressiveness with our serving game and we have to be more resilient when teams challenge us on the road. We’ve proven to be able to withstand those types of challenges at home in our few home matches, but on the road we haven’t necessarily done very well against that.
“I’m proud of the way they did come back on Friday and compete against a team that played as well as they have played all season and we have to expect that Mississippi State is going to play as well as they have played all season against us on Sunday.”
With the LSU victory on Friday and an Alabama loss to Florida has put the Tigers in sole possession of second place in the SEC West, one game behind Arkansas. The Bulldogs are currently in eighth place in the league, a half game ahead of South Carolina overall, with the top eight teams qualifying for the SEC Tournament in two weeks.
“Mississippi State is fighting to get into the tournament and this may be the deciding match for them,” said Flory. “We have to be prepared for a battle but we also have to keep our goals in sight and finish this weekend in the right way to put ourselves in a position to be successful at home next week.”
Having played 20 matches on away from home this season, LSU has posted 15 road victories. That mark is tied for the sixth most road wins in a season in school history and the most wins away from home in a season since the 1991 team, which advanced to the NCAA Final Four.
Earlier this season, the Tigers swept the Bulldogs at home in LSU’s first home match of the season. The Tigers defeated Mississippi State, 30-20, 30-21, 32-30, in front of the fifth-largest crowd in LSU volleyball history.
While LSU only out killed Mississippi State, 49-44, the Tigers blew away the Bulldogs in blocking, recording 15 team blocks to only one for Mississippi State. In addition, LSU hit at a .273 team clip, while the Bulldogs managed only a .130 mark. The Tigers also recorded five service aces, including three by Jelena Mijatovic, with only seven errors to three aces and 10 errors for Mississippi State.
In addition to eight kills, Ivana Kuzmic led the match with nine blocks for LSU, while Melody Clark and Marina Skender each posted six blocks. Kyna Washington led the match with 14 kills and a .400 attacking percentage for the Tigers.
Mijatovic and Skender each posted identical double-doubles with 10 kills and 11 digs each. Daniela Romero recorded a season-best 41 assists along with 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the year. Kassi Mikulik led the Tigers with 12 digs.
Rachel Cooper led the Bulldogs with 13 kills, while a pair of MSU players each recorded eight kills. Jamie Joyner and Erin Seago recorded the only block of the match for the Bulldogs. Megan Lukasek led the match with 24 digs for Mississippi State.
Trailing by five, 27-22, in the third game, LSU used two kills and two aces by Mijatovic, along with a pair of attacking errors by Mississippi State to even the match at 28 all. The Bulldogs sent it to game point twice, but the Tigers rallied back to tie it both times. LSU earned its first game point at 31-30 on a block by Kuzmic and Skender before closing out the match on a kill by Skender, 32-30.
As a team, LSU leads Mississippi State in almost every statistical category this season. The Tigers are averaging 16.0 kills per game with a .238 hitting percentage, while posting 14.6 digs per game and 3.0 blocks per game. The Bulldogs are averaging 14.7 kills per game with a .210 hitting percentage, with 14.9 digs per game and 1.9 blocks per game.
Kuzmic leads LSU with 1.76 blocks per game and a .338 hitting percentage. The middle blocker from Split, Croatia, ranks fifth in the NCAA in blocks per game. Mijatovic leads the Tigers and ranks seventh in the SEC with 4.15 kills per game and leads the SEC with 0.65 service aces per game.
Skender is second on the team with a .316 attacking percentage, while averaging 2.69 kills per game and 0.92 blocks per game. Mikulik leads LSU and ranks ninth in the league with 3.51 digs per game, while Romero posts 8.14 assists per game.
For the Bulldogs, Cooper leads the team with 4.00 kills per game, while Seago leads the team with a .328 hitting percentage. Nicole Palazzo post a team-best 0.88 blocks per game for MSU. Lukasek leads the team with 4.07 digs per game, while Eva Kriegel leads the Bulldogs with 6.24 assists per game.
LSU is 39-6 all-time against the Bulldogs, including an 18-1 mark at home. The Tigers’ only loss to Mississippi State in Starkville was a 3-2 decision in 1997.
LSU will close out the regular season at home next week. The Tigers will host SEC West leader Arkansas on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before taking on Kentucky on Friday at 7 p.m. for Senior Night.