BATON ROUGE — On “Senior Night” in the Maravich Center, the 11th-ranked LSU volleyball team clinched the outright Southeastern Conference Western Division title with a 30-22, 30-19, 30-28 sweep of Alabama on Friday night.
In front of a crowd of 1,064, the 11th largest attendance in school history, the Tigers improved to 23-4 on the season and 15-3 in SEC play. LSU is now four and a half games ahead of Alabama with two conference matches remaining for the Tigers on the road next weekend. The Crimson Tide dropped to 15-11 overall and 10-7 in league play.
“I think we were driven to succeed in our last home match,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Senior night sometimes backfires, but sometimes it’s a positive and it depends on how you spin it. In the last years we have had a very positive spin on it. They look at it as an opportunity to end on their home court. We talk about winning the last one and winning the last one on your home court. Hopefully this isn’t the last match we play here, but if it is, then we took care of business and we reached that goal for the season as well.”
It marks the first outright SEC Western Division championship for LSU, who shared the title with Arkansas last season. In addition, the Tigers are a game and a half behind Florida in the overall conference race. The Gators, who have lost only once in league play this season, have three matches remaining in league play and would have to lose two of the final three to end tied with LSU and lose all three for the Tigers to win the outright title.
Following the match, LSU honored its four seniors with presentations on the court. The Tigers sent four-year letterwinners Melody Clark, Lauren Leaumont, Kassi Mikulik and Daniela Romero, along with equipment manager Annie Beth Lemoine, out with a win in their final regular season home game of the season. Following the next two weeks of action on the road, LSU will await a bid in the NCAA Tournament, which could result in postseason matches being played in the Maravich Center in December.
“We lost our focus a little bit after losing to Florida, and we had to just get back into the gym and re-focus and re-dedicate ourselves to what we can accomplish for the remainder of the season and kind of get rid of the SEC Championship,” said Flory. “We know that we had our opportunity and we didn’t get it done, but the next goal we had was SEC West championship and we had to take care of business. Our next goal now is advancing into the NCAA Tournament. I think that step-by-step, we are still focused and still driven and keep getting better.”
Sophomore Marina Skender led the match with 19 kills for the Tigers, while also posting a match high .459 hitting percentage. Sophomore Kyna Washington recorded 10 kills while hitting at a .304 clip after coming on in the middle of the first game to replace Leaumont, who started the match.
Mikulik led LSU with 15 digs, moving her into third place in third place in single-season digs in Tiger volleyball history. The Flatonia, Texas, native needs only 53 digs to break the school record for digs in a season. Romero posted 14 digs for LSU, while also recording 44 assists, for her 15th double-double of the year. She moved into the top 10 in single-season assists in school history and also moved to within 23 digs of becoming only the eighth player in LSU history to record 1,000 career assists.
Clark and DeGirolamo tied for the match high with four blocks each, including a pair of solo blocks each. Skender led the match with three service aces, while Michelle Hensgens added two for the Tigers.
“We played very efficiently tonight,” said Flory. “We were very balanced. I think that we ran our offense very well. Marina and Kyna carried us, certainly, but our middles did a great job playing defense and forcing their middles out of their normal shot selection and force them into some errors.”
Crystal Hudson led Alabama with 18 kills, the only Crimson Tide player in double-figures. Sarah Snider led the match with 18 digs, followed by Amy Pauley with 10. Four Crimson Tide players recorded two digs each, including Hudson, Liz Salstrand, Rachael Green and Brooks Webster.
“Crystal Hudson with 18 kills is a great player, but what we felt like we needed to do was stop the other people and I think we were successful in that game plan,” said Flory.
As a team, the Tigers recorded 53 kills, compared to only 42 for Alabama. In addition, LSU posted a .285 hitting percentage, while the Crimson Tide only hit .136. Defensively, the Tigers recorded 67 digs and eight blocks, compared to just 55 digs and six blocks for Alabama. LSU also recorded five service aces, while the Crimson Tide had just one.
In the first game, the pair went back and forth through much of the game. With the game tied at 19, the Tigers jumped out to a three-point advantage, 24-21. After Alabama scored to cut the lead to two, 24-22, LSU scored the final six points of the game, including a pair of aces by Skender, to win, 30-22 on a kill by Washington.
The Tigers jumped out to an 11-4 lead early in the second game. LSU led by as many as 12, 21-9, before the Crimson Tide came back to cut the lead to 10, 24-14. Alabama would get no closer than nine the rest of the way as the Tigers scored the final three points of the game to go into the locker room with the convincing two-game lead, 30-19.
Coming out in game three, there were 17 ties and four lead changes with neither team gaining more than a two-point advantage at any point in the game. The last time LSU trailed, however, was at 13-12. The game saw eight more tied scores to get it to 24 all. The Tigers then scored two straight to pull ahead and never lose their lead. With LSU holding game point, 29-27, the Crimson Tide got a kill to keep the match going. The Tigers then put it away on a kill by Clark as the team rushed the court to celebrate the Western Division championship, 30-28.
Next weekend the Tigers will travel to Mississippi to close out the SEC regular season. LSU will travel to Mississippi State on Friday for a rematch with the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then close out the conference season at Ole Miss on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. LSU will conclude the 2006 regular season in Orlando on Thanksgiving Weekend in the SEC/Big East Challenge. The Tigers will face St. John’s and Marquette in the two-day tournament.
No. 11 LSU def. Alabama, 30-222, 30-19, 30-28
Alabama (15-11, 10-7 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Crystal Hudson 18-0-2; Sarah Snider 8-0-1; Rachael Green 7-0-2; Brooks Webster 6-0-2; Brigitte Slack 2-0-0; Liz Salstrand 1-0-2; Megan Hudson 0-1-0; Amy Pauly 0-0-0; Jennifer Weber 0-0-0; Totals 42-1-6.0. (Assists) – Brigitte Slack 34. (Dig leaders) – Sarah Snider 13, Amy Pauly 18.
No. 10 LSU (23-4, 15-3 SEC) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Marina Skender 19-3-0; Vanessa Freeman 7-0-1; Lauren DeGirolamo 7-0-4; Melody Clark 7-0-4; Daniela Romero 2-0-2; Lauren Leaumont 1-0-0; Kyna Washington 10-0-1; Elena Martinez 0-0-0; Michelle Hensgens 0-2-0; Kassi Mikulik 0-0-0; Totals 53-5-8.0. (Assists) – Daniela Romero 44. (Dig leaders) – Kassi Mikulik 15, Daniela Romero 14.