BATON ROUGE — The 11th-ranked LSU volleyball team clinched at least a share of its second straight Southeastern Conference Western Division Championship with a 30-28, 30-26, 30-26, sweep of Arkansas on Wednesday night in the Maravich Center.
With the win, the Tigers moved to 22-4 on the season and 14-3 in SEC play. LSU can now do no worse than tie for the SEC West, leading Alabama by three and a half matches with three matches remaining, including Friday’s home finale against the Crimson Tide for Senior Night. Last season, the Tigers won their first SEC Western Division title, sharing the honor with Arkansas.
In addition, LSU has now posted more wins than any Tiger team since 1992, when LSU finished 26-9. In addition, the Tigers broke the school record for wins in conference play, topping the 13 wins LSU had in 1991.
The loss dropped the Lady Razorbacks to 15-10 for the year and 8-9 in conference play. The Tigers completed the season sweep of Arkansas, marking the first time in school history LSU has swept a pair of matches from the Lady Razorbacks in the same season.
Despite the sweep, it was a hard fought match for LSU as Arkansas did not lose a single game by more than four points. In addition, the match saw 17 lead changes and 30 tied scores over the course of three games.
As a team, the Tigers posted 63 kills with a .269 hitting percentage, while the Lady’Backs were held to 48 kills and a .204 clip. However, Arkansas out dug and out blocked LSU, with the Lady’Backs posting 64 digs and eight blocks to only 60 digs and three blocks for the Tigers.
Freshman Lauren DeGirolamo led LSU with 14 kills and a .520 hitting percentage, having only one error on 25 attempts. Senior Melody Clark posted 13 kills while hitting at a .345 clip and junior Vanessa Freeman recorded 10 kills for the Tigers.
Defensively, senior Kassi Mikulik tied for the match high with 19 digs, moving into fourth place in career digs in LSU history and now only two digs away from breaking the top three in single-season digs in school history. Beyond Mikulik, sophomore Marina Skender posted 16 digs. Freeman and DeGirolamo led the team with two blocks each, while senior Daniela Romero recorded her 11th 50-plus assist match with 51.
“Our middles did a great job tonight,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Lauren DeGirolamo hitting .520 and Mel at .345 allowed us to be very balanced and I think that’s a tribute to our ball control. Our first contact ball control kept us in system. Kassi, Marina, Elena Martinez and Michelle Hensgens all did a great job of taking care of the ball. That allowed us to be very balanced offensively. Dee struggled since she wasn’t feeling well, but she battled through it.”
In the first game, Kyna Washington went down with a turned ankle after a play at the net. After being helped off the court, freshman Alaina Klarquist came in to replace her. Washington was able to return to the court in the second game and played the remainder of the match, recording nine kills in the final two games.
“When Kyna first went down she thought it was pretty bad, but once the trainer got to her, it wasn’t that bad,” said Flory. “I think she’ll recover fine. The fact that she came back to play shows toughness and shows that she’s in there to work hard and make good things happen.
“At this point in the season everyone is nicked up and has aches and pains. This is the first time Kyna has gotten hurt since she’s been here. I’m proud of her for sticking it out and getting back out on the court, competing and playing really well when she went back in.”
In just her fifth game of the season and second game in SEC play, Klarquist came off the bench with the Tigers trailing 12-9 to record four kills to help LSU earn the game one win. She posted a big kill to give the Tigers a 28-26 lead late in the game and had several nice defensive plays that kept LSU in long rallies.
“I’m really proud of Kyna Washington coming off a turned ankle in game one and coming back in to play,” said Flory. “The spark that we had was Alaina Klarquist coming in to finish game one for us when Kyna went down. She came up with some huge swings and I’m really proud of her coming in and playing that role for us.”
Denitza Koleva led Arkansas with 17 kills, followed by Christina Lawrence with 11. Ashley Miller and Koleva tied with Mikulik for the most digs in the match at 19. Koleva and Catherine Fowler tied for the match high with three blocks each.
Arkansas came out and took the early 5-2 lead in the first game before LSU used a 4-0 rally to take the 8-7 advantage. The Lady Razorbacks countered with a 4-0 run of its own to retake the lead, 11-8. The Tigers trailed by as many as four, 14-11, before using their longest run of the game, 5-0, to again take the lead, 19-17.
LSU pulled out to its largest lead of the game, 23-20, but Arkansas would not go away as it tied the game at 26. With the game tied at 28, the Tigers got back-to-back kills by DeGirolamo and Freeman to earn the game one win, 30-28.
Neither team was able to gain a lead of more than two through most of the second game. The game saw 16 tied scores before LSU took the lead for good. With the score knotted at 26, the Tigers scored four straight points, the longest run of the game, to go into the locker room with the two game lead, 30-26.
The pair went back and forth to start the final game. LSU pulled out to a 7-5 advantage before Arkansas came back to take the lead, 10-8. The Tigers tied it up against at 10 and with the game tied at 14, LSU went on a 3-0 run that saw it take the lead for good. The Lady Razorbacks were able to get it back within one, 19-18, but the Tigers responded by stretching the lead to 24-20. On the second match point, LSU took the game and the match on a hitting error by Koleva.
LSU will close out the regular season home schedule on Friday against Alabama at 7 p.m. for Senior Night. There will be an autographed senior jersey giveaway to help send out the four magnificent seniors – Clark, Mikulik, Romero and Lauren Leaumont – in style
“It will be senior night with some incredible seniors who have played a huge role in our program,” said Flory. “Dee is having an All-America type year. Kassi has been, in our opinion, the MVP of this team for the last two seasons with her ball control and defense. Melody has been a stabilizing force for four years. Mel and Kassi and Dee have started almost every match of their careers with the Tigers and we’re going to be sad to see them go. But we are thrilled for them that they are having such a great senior year and much of that is due to their effort and what they have given back to this program.”
No. 11 LSU def. Arkansas, 30-28, 30-26, 30-26
Arkansas (15-10, 8-9 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Denitza Koleva 17-0-3; Christina Lawrence 11-0-2; Amy Allison 9-0-3; Kele Brewer 5-0-0; Jessica Dorrell 6-0-1; Lindsay Scanlan 0-1-1; Ashley Miller 0-1-0; Catherine Fowler 0-0-3; Caira Daugherty 0-1-0; Destiny Clark 0-0-1; Totals 48-3-8.0. (Assists) – Lindsay Scanlan 22, Caira Daugherty 17. (Dig leaders) – Ashley Miller 19, Denitza Koleva 19.
No. 11 LSU (22-4, 14-3 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Lauren DeGirolamo 14-1-2; Melody Clark 13-0-0; Vanessa Freeman 10-0-2; Kyna Washington 9-0-1; Daniela Romero 7-0-0; Marina Skender 6-0-0; Alaina Klarquist 4-0-0; Elena Martinez 0-0-0; Michelle Hensgens 0-1-0; Kassi Mikulik 0-0-0; Totals 63-2-3.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 51. (Dig leaders) – Kassi Mikulik 19, Marina Skender 16.