BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team got back to .500 in league action with a second weekend sweep on Sunday in the Maravich Center, this one coming over Arkansas, 25-21, 25-22, 25-15.
The Tigers used a big win over Ole Miss on Friday and another on Sunday over the Razorbacks to improve to 8-5 on the year and even back their Southeastern Conference record at 3-3.
This was just the fourth sweep of the year by the Tigers, while it was the eighth sweep and second straight for Arkansas, which fell to 4-11 (1-4 SEC) with the loss.
The Tigers hit a season-high .410 while holding the Razorbacks to a .269 clip. They out-killed the Hogs, 50-42, as well and had more assists (48-39), digs (43-34) and blocks (7.0-6.0)
All of this was without the services of junior middle blocker Lauren DeGirolamo. She went down in Friday’s win over Ole Miss with a knee injury, and MRIs on Saturday showed DeGirolamo suffered a torn ACL and MCL. The Tigers had to use a brand new lineup and have players switch positions to compensate for the loss.
“I think we did a good job today considering the loss we just had and the fact that we are playing with a new lineup,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “We are not as confident in that lineup because we haven’t had very many reps, but I thought we did a good job of maintaining what we could do and not trying to do too much.”
The Tigers’ other middle blocker, Brittnee Cooper, had another excellent outing on Sunday. The junior tallied 12 kills on a .458 clip against Arkansas, totaling 23 kills and a .452 percentage overall for this weekend’s matches. She also had two solo blocks versus both the Rebels and Razorbacks and blocked a total of eight balls this weekend.
Tania Schatow, who was moved from right side to middle blocker, posted 13 kills on a .524 clip with five blocks. Elena Martinez paced the defense with 18 digs, her 46th straight match to record double-figure digs.
The Tigers won a tight decision in set one, 25-21, behind an impressive team hitting percentage of .514. Cooper led the way in the first frame with six kills on a .462 clip. Schatow also added four kills.
LSU came out in the second set and scored three quick points to take a 3-0 lead and force an Arkansas timeout. The Razorbacks stayed in it until the end, including a late run that put them within one as late as 23-22. But the Tigers then scored the next two points and closed out the set on a Michele Williams kill and took a 2-0 lead into the locker room for the second straight match.
The Tigers were out-hit, .353-.312 in set two and had 14 kills compared to the Razorbacks’ 16, but LSU still came out on the winning side of the contest.
The third set also began with a quick LSU start, Arkansas calling a timeout after the Tigers took an early 4-0 lead out of the locker room.
The Razorbacks got within two at 5-3, but the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to force another Arkansas timeout. LSU scored two more to make it an 8-0 run before Arkansas put any more points on the board.
The Razorbacks recorded the next three straight points, but the Tigers were too much in the end. LSU won the third set by the largest margin of the match, 25-15.
This was the final match of a four-match homestand for the Tigers, who travel to Athens, Ga., for a midweek showdown with the Bulldogs on Wednesday.