BATON ROUGE — Junior Kyna Washington became the 14th player in LSU volleyball history to record 1,000 career kills as the Tigers defeated Notre Dame, 30-27, 28-30, 30-16, 26-30, 15-10, on Tuesday night in non-conference play at the Maravich Center.
With the win, LSU improved to 18-4 on the year and have now won three straight matches. The loss dropped the Fighting Irish to 9-10 on the season, snapping a two-match winning streak. The Tigers also improved to 9-1 in non-conference matches, with the only loss coming to Iowa State in the Iowa Challenge, and 9-1 at home, with the only loss coming to top 10th-ranked Florida.
“This was a great match because it really forced us respond to a very solid team,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Notre Dame is a very good team and they have some nice players and some people that are tough to stop. We had a tough time with (Serinity) Phillips on the outside in the first few games before we kind of figured her out a little bit late.
With the fourth of her 14 kills of the match, Washington hit the millennium mark. In addition to becoming just the 14th player in LSU history to record 1,000 career kills, she is also only the fifth player and the first since Carmis Franks in 1995 to accomplish the feat during her junior season. For her career, she now has 1,010 for her career and moves into second in career kills per game in LSU history.
“Kyna is a great player and this is not a surprise,” said Flory. “She has certainly had a lot of opportunities and when we give her the ball she comes through. She’s a big time player and if Kyna Washington know how good she could be, she would be even better. I’m really proud of how she’s matured through the course of the season. This year she is being very smart. She is picking and choosing when she rips it and when she tips it and scores in different ways. I’m really proud of her maturity that when someone shuts her down, she finds another way to score.”
It was also a monumental match for middle blocker Brittnee Cooper, who posted her fourth double-double of the year. The sophomore recorded a career high 21 kills, topping her previous high by three, while hitting .613 , another career high, which was just shy of a top 10 performance in school history. With 13 blocks, she again broke her career best and tied for the seventh most total blocks in a five-game match in LSU history. Of those 13 blocks, 11 were assists, which tied for the eighth most in a five-game match.
Junior Elena Martinez continued her assault on the LSU single-match record book as she recorded 29 digs, tying her for the second most in a five-game match in school history. She now holds the three top five-game marks in school history and moved into third in single-season digs in school history with 489.
Junior Lauren DeGirolamo led the match with 23 kills, while hitting at a .380 clip. Joining Martinez with 20-plus digs were junior Marina Skender who tied her career high with 25 digs, and Washington, who recorded a season high 20 digs. Skender and Washington also recorded double-doubles by adding 14 kills each to their dig marks.
“The key was our middles,” said Flory. “We know that our middles are difficult to defend if we make the right choices in the right situation. If we give them the ball, then they are going to succeed. Through portions of the match, Cooper led us and when Cooper wasn’t effective, Lauren led us. I like the balance that they showed and the pressure that they took off of our outsides to have to be the go to.”
As a team, LSU posted much better numbers than Notre Dame. The Tigers out killed the Fighting Irish, 83 to 76, while out hitting them, .288 to .197. In addition, LSU topped the 100-dig mark for the first time this year with 103, while Notre Dame posted 96. Holding one of the nation’s top blocking teams to only nine blocks, the Tigers posted 15 blocks to match their season block per game average.
The pair battled back and forth in the first game, which posted 18 tied scores and eight lead changes. The final tied score of the game came at 24-24 before LSU took the lead for good. The Fighting Irish were within one, 28-27, but the Tigers scored the final two points to take the game, 30-27, on a ball handling error by Notre Dame.
The second game was much of the same with 13 tied scores and seven lead changes. Late in the game, the pair were tied at 28, but after LSU scored the final two points to take game one, the Fighting Irish returned the favor with back-to-back points to take game two, 30-28.
Coming out of the locker room in game three, the Tigers were dominant from beginning to end. With LSU leading, 10-8, the Tigers scored 13 of the next 17 points to stretch their lead to 23-11. Notre Dame cut the lead to 10, 26-16, before tough serving by Washington, including one of her two service aces, closed out the game, 30-16.
LSU led by as many as six early in game four, 13-7, before the Fighting Irish came back to tie it up at 17 all. The pair went back and forth with eight more tied scores before Notre Dame took the lead for good, 26-25, as part of a five-point run that saw Notre Dame send it to game point, 29-25. The Tigers fought off the first game point, but the Irish took the game and sent the match to a fifth game, 30-26.
After LSU scored the first three points of the fifth game, Notre Dame tied it up at four. With the score tied at nine, the Tigers took the lead for good on the first of three straight blocks by Cooper, 10-9. Of LSU’s final six points of the match, Cooper was involved in all six, recording four blocks and two kills.
LSU improved its overall lead against the Fighting Irish to 5-2. Notre Dame has still never won a match in the Maravich Center in three meetings. The Tigers have now won two straight five-game meetings after knocking off the then-No. 8 Fighting Irish in five games in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in 2005 played in College Station, Texas, after Hurricane Katrina went through New Orleans.
LSU will return to the road and resume league action at No. 10 Florida and South Carolina this weekend. The Tigers will face the nationally ranked Gators next Friday at 6 p.m. CDT as part of the SEC Regional Sports Network package in Baton Rouge on Fox Sports Southwest, cable channel 38. LSU will then travel to take on the Gamecocks on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CDT. The Tigers lost to Florida, 3-1, after sweeping South Carolina, 3-0, in their first meetings this season.
LSU def. Notre Dame 30-27, 28-30, 30-16, 26-30, 15-10
Notre Dame (9-10) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Serinity Phillips 20-1-2; Justine Stremick 16-0-7; Adrianna Stasiuk 15-1-1; Kellie Sciacca 14-1-2; Megan Fesl 7-0-3; Ashley Tarutis 3-0-1; Megan Dunne 1-0-0; Jamel Nicholas 0-1-0; Kim Kristoff 0-1-0; Totals 76-5-9.0. (Assists) – Ashley Tarutis 57. (Dig leaders) – Megan Dunne 23; Adrianna Stasiuk 21; Serinity Phillips 17; Jamel Nicholas 16; Ashley Tarutis 8
LSU (18-4) (Kills-aces-blocks) – Lauren DeGirolamo 23-0-0; Brittnee Cooper 21-0-13; Kyna Washington 14-2-2; Marina Skender 14-2-5; Angela Bensend 8-0-5; Maggie Lonergan 3-1-1; Michelle Hensgens 0-1-0; Elena Martinez 0-1-0; Totals 83-7-15.0. (Assists) – Maggie Lonergan 66. (Dig leaders) – Elena Martinez 29; Marina Skender 25; Kyna Washington 20; Michelle Hensgens 13