BATON ROUGE — The 23rd-ranked LSU volleyball team earned the Mizuno Tiger Classic title with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Saint Louis in the tournament finale after sweeping past UL-Monroe to open play on Saturday in the Maravich Center.
With the wins, a 30-26, 21-30, 30-27, 22-30, 15-7, win over the Billikens and a 30-16, 30-19, 30-21, win over the Warhawks, the Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season, while Saint Louis dropped to 2-1 and ULM went winless in the tournament at 0-3. New Orleans, the tournament’s fourth participant knocked off UL-Monroe after falling to the Billikens and finishing at 1-2.
“From our perspective it was a very good performance, but a very inconsistent performance,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Certainly it was an opening weekend-type of performance from our team and especially from a bunch of young players who haven’t played a lot in our line-up. I’m proud of the resiliency and the toughness they showed to win in five. We had some leadership step up late in that match that we’ve been looking for, but you have to kind of force them in that situation. I think we took a big step forward as a team.”
For her efforts, Lauren DeGirolamo was named the Mizuno Tiger Classic Most Valuable Player, while Marina Skender and Brittnee Cooper earned all-tournament honors for LSU. Saint Louis placed Bridget Fonke and Whitney Roth on the all-tournament team, as Dobrilla Kovacevic of New Orleans and Ilima Sam Fong of UL-Monroe were also honored.
In the nightcap against the Billikens, the Tigers won the first game, 30-26, before the Billikens evened it up, 30-21. Again LSU took the lead with a 30-27 win, but Saint Louis would not go away, sending the match to a fifth game with a 30-22 win in game four. In the final game, the Tigers used a 6-0 run midway through the game to go from trailing, 4-3, to holding the 9-4 lead. LSU went on to win, 15-7, to claim the championship.
“This weekend was exactly what we needed to start the season,” said Flory. “We got some matches under our belt and we got pressured against a very good Saint Louis team. They are a tough team that battles you point for point and they make you earn what you get. They didn’t give us many errors. They are a very solid team and they are going to be very good in their conference.”
Kyna Washington led the Tigers with 17 kills, one of four LSU players in double figures offensively. Freshman Angela Bensend posted 14 kills, followed by DeGirolamo with 14 and Skender with 10. Cooper posted a career-high nine blocks, including a pair of solo blocks and seven block assists. DeGirolamo added seven blocks, while Washington had six and Skender had five.
Elena Martinez led the match with 25 digs for the Tigers, as Skender posted her first double-double of the year with 16 digs to go with her 10 kills. Bensend and Maggie Lonergan also had double-doubles as Bensend added 10 digs with her 14 kills and Lonergan had 10 digs with her 48 assists.
As a team, LSU hit .225 with 64 kills on 178 attempts. The Tigers also posted 17.5 blocks with 73 digs and six aces. Conversely, the Billikens recorded 69 kills but a .182 hitting percentage, with 81 digs and 10 blocks.
Saint Louis was led by Fonke with a match best 25 kills, followed by Sammi McCloud with 20. Lauren Christman was the only other Billiken in double figures with 11 kills. Whitney Behrens led Saint Louis with 21 digs, followed by Roth and McCloud with 15 and Emily Galbraith with 10. Roth combined her 15 digs with 58 assists for a double-double. Christman and Sutton Lasater tied for the team lead with five blocks each.
In the opening match, the Tigers easily knocked off Louisiana-Monroe, 30-16, 30-19, 30-21. LSU recorded 33 kills with a .311 hitting percentage on the match with seven blocks and 17 service aces, which tied for the eighth most in a three-game match in school history.
The Warhawks posted only 22 kills for the match while failing to hit in positive numbers, recording a -.025 mark. It is the fifth time in Flory’s 10-year tenure that the Tigers have held an opponent to negative hitting and the lowest since Nicholls State hit -.056 in August last season.
DeGirolamo led LSU with 10 kills and a .625 hitting percentage, the only Tiger with double-figure kills. The sophomore also led the match with five blocks, while Washington and Skender each posted five aces. Martinez was the only LSU player with double-figure digs, posting 11 for the match.
Stephanie Hall led the Warhawks with nine kills while Keisha Law led UL-Monroe with seven digs, as no ULM player posted double-figures offensively or defensively. In addition, the Warhawks failed to record a block in the match, while Hall and Law led ULM with a pair of aces each.
LSU returns to action on the road next weekend in the Mizuno Invitational II in Houston. The Tigers will take on Illinois on Friday at 10:30 a.m., before closing out the tournament on Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11 a.m. and tournament host Rice at 5 p.m.
LSU def. UL-Monroe, 30-16, 30-19, 30-21
LSU (2-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) ? Lauren DeGirolamo 10-0-5; Angela Bensend 7-3-3; Marina Skender 6-5-1; Brittnee Cooper 4-0-2; Kyna Washington 3-5-3; Brittney Johnson 1-2-3; Elena Martinez 2-2-0; Michelle Hensgens 0-0-0; Tania Schatow 0-0-0; Shannon Balikowsky 0-0-0; Totals 33-17-7.0. (Assists) ? Brittney Johnson 19. (Dig leaders) ? Elena Martinez 11.
UL-Monroe (0-2) (Kills-aces-blocks) ? Stephanie Hall 9-2-0; Christy Tribble 4-0-0; Mari O’Neal 4-0-0; Ilima Sam Fong 2-0-0; Candice Howell 0-0-0; Jessica Ayodele 0-0-0; Johanna Spreen 2-0-0; Stephanie Wardach 0-0-0; Keisha Law 1-2-0; Megan Osborne 0-1-0; Totals 22-5-0.0. (Assists) ? Ilima Sam Fong 14. (Dig leaders) ? Keisha Law 7.
LSU def. Saint Louis, 30-26, 21-30, 30-27, 22-30, 15-7
Saint Louis (2-1) (Kills-aces-blocks) ? Bridget Fonke 25-1-4; Sammi McCloud 20-1-3; Lauren Christman 11-0-3; Sutton Lasater 6-0-5; Whitney Roth 1-2-0; Sally Warning 1-0-1; Chrissy King 2-0-0; Whitney Behrens 0-0-0; Sarah Entzeroth 0-0-0; Emily Galbraith 3-2-0; Megan Boken 0-0-0; Totals 69-6-10.0. (Assists) ? Whitney Roth 58. (Dig leaders) ? Whitney Behrens 21, Whitney Roth 15, Sammi McCloud 15, Emily Galbraith 10.
LSU (2-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) ? Kyna Washington 17-1-6; Angela Bensend 14-0-4; Lauren DeGirolamo 12-2-7; Marina Skender 10-2-5; Brittnee Cooper 9-0-9; Maggie Longergan 2-1-2; Brittney Johnson 0-0-0; Elena Martinez 0-0-0; Michelle Hensgens 0-0-0; Totals 64-6-17.5. (Assists) ? Maggie Lonergan 48. (Dig leaders) ? Elena Martinez 25, Marina Skender 16, Maggie Lonergan 10, Angela Bensend 10.
Mizuno Tiger Classic All-Tournament Team
MVP ? Lauren DeGirolamo, LSU
Brittnee Cooper, LSU
Ilima Sam Fong, UL-Monroe
Bridget Fonke, Saint Louis
Dobrilla Kovacevic, New Orleans
Whitney Roth, Saint Louis
Marina Skender, LSU