BATON ROUGE — Led by Brittnee Cooper’s team-high 18 kills and a match-high nine blocks, the LSU volleyball team improved its record to 4-1 in five-set matches by defeating South Carolina, 21-25, 27-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-13, on Sunday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU’s record improved to 12-7 overall and the Tigers built a half-match lead in the Southeastern Conference Western Division over an idle Ole Miss. LSU is 7-5 in SEC play while the Rebels are 6-5. South Carolina fell to 16-6 overall with a 7-5 conference mark.
“I thought we would come out and struggle in the first set because we gave up so much emotionally on Friday night,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “Overall for the whole weekend we played hard but didn’t execute well. The lack of execution got us into two five-set matches which is too bad. Overall, we are pretty mentally and physically taxed, so I liked our response.”
South Carolina won the first set, 25-21, paced by senior Belita Salters’ eight kills and one solo block. LSU responded by winning a hard-fought second set, 27-25, and followed that with a convincing 25-17 win in set three.
However, the Gamecocks fought back into the match in the fourth set when they won seven straight points to go up 22-19 after falling behind LSU 19-15. South Carolina won three of the next five points to win the set, 25-21. In the fifth set, the Tigers jumped out to a 4-1 lead before South Carolina tied it up at four apiece. The teams traded punches back and forth until LSU closed it out with a 15-13 decision.
For the second straight match, Cooper led the team in kills with 18 while Michelle Williams and Kyna Washington each had 12 to pace the Tigers’ attack. Washington finished with a double-double as she also recorded 12 digs, second on the team behind Elena Martinez’ match-high 25.
South Carolina was led by junior Ivana Kujundzic who led everyone with 20 kills while also posting 17 digs. Hannah Lawing also recorded a double-double for the Gamecocks as she finished with 11 kills and 12 digs.
“We knew this was a must-win match for us, and our response was great once we got backed up,” Flory said.
LSU will return to action on Friday at 6 p.m. CDT at Kentucky who is tied atop the SEC standings with Florida with an 11-1 conference record after defeating Alabama in three sets on Sunday.