BATON ROUGE — A season-high Maravich Center crowd of 1,249 watched the LSU volleyball team play its best match of the year, sweeping Ole Miss (25-15, 25-17, 25-18) to stay on track in its quest to repeat as Southeastern Conference Western Division champions.
LSU improved to 7-5 (2-3 SEC) with the win while Ole Miss fell to 6-7 (2-2 SEC) with the defeat. It was just the third 3-0 win for the Tigers this year.
“We really felt like we turned the corner in practice this week,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “We worked on regaining the tempo and intensity level we needed to have, and we felt that coming into tonight’s match.”
The Tigers have struggled in first sets this season, dropping the opening frame nine times in 11 matches including six straight times. But this wasn’t the case Friday, as LSU dominated the first set, 25-15, over Ole Miss.
“Our goal in the locker room was to come out and win set one,” Flory said. “We were determined to make that change today. It had been a burden for us, and we were getting ourselves into trouble we couldn’t get out from under. But we came out tonight with an air of confidence that we didn’t have in previous matches, and that made all the difference.”
Senior outside hitter Kyna Washington led the Tigers in kills for the ninth match this season with 13, while Brittnee Cooper added 11 on a .444 clip. Lauren DeGirolamo contributed eight kills and 7 blocks, and with her second block of the night, the junior middle blocker moved into eighth place all-time in career blocks at LSU.
Sam Dabbs kept the offense on track, her 28 assists pacing the Tigers to a team clip of .186. Conversely, the Rebels hit a negative clip for the night with an abysmal -.046. In fact, LSU dominated Ole Miss in nearly every statistical category. Their 37 kills topped the Rebels’ 21, and they had more assists (33-19), digs (54-36) and blocks (16.0-9.0) as well.
No Rebel posted double-figure kills or blocks, as three Ole Miss hitters tied with four kills to lead the team and no one tallied more than three blocks.
LSU senior libero Elena Martinez increased her streak of consecutive matches with double-figure digs to 45 as she led the match with 18. She collected 10 in the second frame alone.
Tania Schatow had a superb night defensively as well, shattering her previous career-high dig record of three with 15 against the Rebels. She added two kills and five blocks to the mix as well.
LSU’s first point of the night came on a kill by Cooper, the 500th career kills for the junior middle blocker. Cooper finished the first set with five kills on five attempts, a perfect hitting percentage.
After being tied at 6-all, the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to take a 12-6 lead. The Rebels stayed within six points until late in the set, when the Tigers went on a 9-2 run after an 18-12 lead to close out the set.
Although the Tigers hit just .176 in the first set, the Rebels were held to a -.081 clip.
It was back and forth early in set two until the Tigers pushed a 6-all tie to a 14-6 lead behind an 8-0 run. They eventually won the set, 25-17.
For the first time since a sweep of McNeese State on Sept. 6, the Tigers took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at the break.
The Tigers bettered their hitting percentage to .257 in the second frame while again holding Ole Miss to a negative clip at -.045. Washington tallied seven kills in the second set on a .667 clip. She already had double-figure kills after two sets.
The Rebels hung with the Tigers in the third set, even holding a 13-11 lead about midway through the frame. LSU forced a 16-all tie and then began pulling away late in the set. From that point on, the Tigers used a 9-2 run to close out the set and win the match on two straight aces from Washington.
The Tigers’ next match is on Sunday, as they play host to Arkansas in the Maravich Center at 1:30 p.m.