BATON ROUGE — After taking a two-game lead, the LSU volleyball team could not hold off No. 2 Penn State as the Nittany Lions came back to win three straight games and take the heartbreaker, 30-32, 24-30, 30-23, 30-23, 15-6, in the nightcap after the Tigers topped Nicholls State, 30-14, 30-21, 30-15, in the opener on Saturday at the Maravich Center.
With the split LSU moved to 2-1 on the season, while Penn State improved to 3-0 to claim the tournament title. The Colonels fell to 0-3 on the season after losing to the Tigers and falling to Rice in three games later in the day. Penn State also topped Rice in three games in other tournament action on Saturday.
“I think this was a great learning experience for us,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “I liked the way we competed in games one and two. I liked the level that we played on. I feel like we belong up there. We just have to learn how to finish.”
Nittany Lion Nicole Fawcett earned Most Valuable Player honors for the Tiger Invitational. LSU’s Kassi Mikulik was named the tournament’s best libero. The All-Tournament team included Melody Clark and Daniela Romero of LSU, Cassy Salyer, Christa Harmotto and Megan Hodge of Penn State, and Karen Morgan of Rice.
Friday, Aug. 25
4:30 p.m.
Penn St. def. Nicholls St., 3-0
7 p.m.
LSU def. Rice, 3-1
Saturday., Aug. 26
11 a.m.
LSU def. Nicholls St., 3-0
1:30 p.m.
Penn St. def. Rice, 3-0
5 p.m.
Rice def. Nicholls St., 3-0
7 p.m.
Penn St. def. LSU, 3-2
All times Central and subject to change.
Home team listed second.
Behind the 10th largest crowd in school history, LSU took a two-game lead into the locker room. The Tigers could not hold the momentum coming out, however, as the Nittany Lions came back to win three-straight games. Unlike the upset of No. 8 Notre Dame last season, LSU could not hold off Penn State’s late charge as the Nittany Lion’s two returning All-Americans took over to push them over the top.
“When you are playing a team that is a seasoned veteran team, they’ve been here before and we’re just trying to get there,” said Flory. “They are used to being in the top 10 and we are trying to get there. The maturity of their older players took over at the end of the match.
“We have to understand that we are a senior laden team and we have to feel like we belong. We did for two games and then we started playing in the big picture rather than playing in the small picture. We have to understand our personality and the type of game that we play and how we need to focus, but it was just the first weekend.”
After 19 tied scores and four lead changes in the first game, the Tigers put away the third game point, 32-30. LSU capitalized on back-to-back attacking errors by the Nittany Lions to earn the victory, outkilling Penn State, 18-14.
The pair went back and forth in the second game with neither team able to gain an advantage early on. With the scored tied at 19, LSU used a 4-0 run to take the lead for good as the Tigers took the game, 30-24. Once again, the Nittany Lions had back-to-back attacking errors to end the game as LSU recorded 18 kills again, while PSU had only nine.
Coming out of the locker room, Penn State took a 13-9 lead in game three. LSU got within two, 14-12, and again at 20-18, the Nittany Lions closed out the game on a 10-5 run to take a game back. The Tigers fell behind again in the fourth game, 13-8, and were not able to make up the ground. Penn State led by as many as eight, 28-19, before LSU got within six, 29-23, but a kill evened the match and sent it to a decisive game five.
In the final game, the Nittany Lions took advantage of the Tigers’ fatigue and jumped out to an 8-3 lead. LSU could get no closer than four, 8-4, as Penn State completed the comeback, 15-6.
Neither team could boast great efficiency numbers as the Nittany Lions hit .156 for the match, while the Tigers came in at .105. LSU recorded 69 digs, compared to 60 for Penn State. The Nittany Lions recorded 86 digs and 18.5 blocks defensively, compared to 77 digs and 16 blocks for the Tigers.
“In the first two games, we were able to keep them out of their offensive rhythm,” said Flory. “In game three, they broke our serve and that was the key to that part of the game. You have to control that portion of the game to control the other team’s offense.
“We thought we had it broken again at the end of game four by serving short and changing the tempo of their offense, but we didn’t answer in game five and that’s one thing that I’m a little disappointed with. They hit .778 in game five and that’s a pretty impressive game five for them.”
Kyna Washington led LSU with 19 kills, followed by Marina Skender with 17 and Vanessa Freeman with 14. Freshman Lauren DeGirolamo led the match with nine blocks, including four solo blocks, while Freeman recorded six blocks and Clark had five.
Mikulik led the Tigers with 21 digs, one of five players with double-figure digs for LSU. Washington recorded 17 for her third double-double of the season. Skender had her second double-double with 13 digs and Elena Martinez had a career-best 13 digs. Romero had 11 digs to go along with her match-high 55 assists.
Fawcett led the match with 21 kills, while Harmotto had 13 and Hodge had 12. Kate Price posted a match-high 26 digs, followed by Alisha Glass with 17, Hodge with 12 and Jessica Yanz and Roberta Holehouse with 11 each. Melissa Walbridge recorded nine blocks, while Harmotto had seven and Glass had six.
“Fawcett is an incredible athlete,” said Flory. “She’s been part of the USA Volleyball program and was the National Freshman of the Year last year. She has taken another step up after training with the national team all summer. She showed us why she’ll probably be a first-team All-American this year.”
In the first match of the day, LSU trailed only twice in the match as the Tigers had no trouble with the Colonels. After Nicholls State scored the first point of the match, LSU went on an 11-3 run to pull ahead by eight. The Tigers led by as many as 17, 29-12, before taking game one, 30-14.
The Colonels scored the first point of game two and were tied with LSU at four each. The Tigers then went on an 11-3 run and never looked back. LSU led by as many as 14, 26-14, before going into the locker room with the two game lead, 30-21.
In the final game, the Tigers scored the first three points of the game before going on a 9-4 run to take the 12-4 lead. After leading by11, 23-11, Nicholls got it back to within nine, 23-14. LSU took the match and the game on a 7-1 run, 30-15.
Clark led the match with 13 kills, followed by DeGirolamo and Washington with 11 each. Both Clark and DeGirolamo led the match with four blocks each. Mikulik posted a team-best 14 digs, while Washington and Skender both posted double figures with 11 and 10 respectively.
Washington led the team with three of the Tigers’ 11 service aces. Skender, Mikulik, Lauren Leaumont and Daniela Romero each had a pair of aces for LSU.
Atina Porter led Nicholls State with four kills, while Kindra Halverson and Amy Beshir posted the only blocks of the match for the Colonels. Enjoli Ford led the match with 15 digs, while Amy Whitehead recorded 11. Casey Wirwille recorded three service aces to lead Nicholls.
LSU hits the road for its first road test of the season next weekend. The Tigers travel to the Billiken Invitational to take on No. 22 Minnesota, Texas A&M, which is receiving votes in the poll, and host St. Louis. LSU will face the Aggies on Friday at 5 p.m., before taking on the Golden Gophers at noon and Dayton at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
LSU def. Nicholls State, 30-14, 30-21, 30-15
Nicholls State (0-2) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Atina Porter 4 0-0; Kindra Halverson 2-1-1; Chelsea Dockrey 2-0-0; Mallory McInnis 2-0-0; Amy Whitehead 1-0-0; Aaliyah Muhammad 0-0-0; Casey Wirwille 1-3-0; Amy Beshir 1-0-1; Rachel Spreen 0-0-0; Aly’ce Peters 0-0-0; Alex Austin 0-0-0; Enjoli Ford 0-0-0; Totals 13-4-1.0. (Assists) – Amy Whitehead 6. (Dig leaders) – Enjoli Ford 15, Amy Whitehead 11.
LSU (2-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Melody Clark 13-0-4; Lauren DeGirolamo 11-0-2; Kyna Washington 11-1-4; Marina Skender 5-2-0; Daniela Romero 3-2-1; Vanessa Freeman 2-0-1; Lauren Leaumont 1-2-0; Elena Martinez 0-0-0; Michelle Hensgens 0-0-0; Kassi Mikulik 0-2-0; Totals 46-11-7.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 40. (Dig leaders) – Kassi Mikulik 14; Kyna Washington 11; Marina Skender 10.
No. 2 Penn State def. LSU, 30-32, 24-30, 30-23, 30-23, 15-6
Penn State (3-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Nicole Fawcett 21-0-4; Christa Harmotto 13-0-7; Megan Hodge 12-1-1; Melissa Walbridge 4-1-9; Alisha Glass 1-0-6; Jessica Yanz 1-1-0; Roberta Holehouse 0-1-0; Kris Brown 0-0-0; Ashley Fidler 0-0-0; Cassy Salyer 7-0-6; Kate Price 0-0-0; Totals 60-4-18.5. (Assists) – Alisha Glass 37; Jessica Yanz 17. (Dig leaders) – Kate Price 26; Alisha Glass; Megan Hodge 12; Jessica Yanz; Roberta Holehouse 11.
LSU (2-1) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Kyna Washington 19-0-3; Marina Skender 17-1-1; Vanessa Freeman 14-0-6; Melody Clark 9-0-5; Lauren DeGirolamo 6-0-9; Daniela Romero 4-1-2; Lauren Leaumont 0-0-0; Elena Martinez 0-2-0; Kassi Mikulik 0-0-0; Totals 69-4-16.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 55. (Dig leaders) – Kassi Mikulik 21; Kyna Washington 17; Marina Skender 13; Elena Martinez 12; Daniela Romero 11.
Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team
MVP – Nicole Fawcett, Penn State
Libero – Kassi Mikulik, LSU
Melody Clark, LSU
Christa Harmotto, Penn State
Megan Hodge, Penn State
Karen Morgan, Rice
Daniela Romero, LSU
Cassy Salyer, Penn State