ATHENS, Ga. — Winning road matches in the Southeastern Conference is always a difficult task, and that proved to be the case Wednesday for the LSU volleyball team, which fell 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-16) to Georgia in the Ramsey Center.
The Tigers dropped to 8-6 (3-4 SEC) with the loss, while the Bulldogs used home-court advantage to improve to 9-9 (2-5 SEC).
“We did not control the part of the game that we knew we had to in order to succeed,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “Georgia won the serving and passing battle and that made the difference in the match.”
LSU allowed the Bulldogs to hit .370 for the match while only hitting at .193 as a team. The Tigers also were out-killed, 44-33.
No Tiger had double-digit kills, but Brittnee Cooper‘s nine led the team as did her six blocks. Elena Martinez also collected 19 digs for the Purple & Gold.
Lindsay Gehan led the Bulldogs with 16 kills on a .583 clip. Maria Taylor (11) and Erika Clark (10) also posted double-figure kills.
The Tigers got into a quick hole in set one, forced to call a timeout down 8-2. LSU managed to get back to within two on several occasions, but Georgia strung together another run that put the Bulldogs up 20-14. LSU used its second timeout of the set.
The Georgia lead was too much to overcome, however, and the Tigers lost the opening frame, 25-17. LSU hit .250 in the first set while allowing the Bulldogs a .500 clip.
The Tigers held the upper hand by a few points through most of the second set until Georgia came back and tied things up at 16-all. The two teams battled back and forth, but in the end the Bulldogs claimed set two as well, 25-23, and took a 2-0 lead into the locker room.
LSU was the more efficient team in the second frame with a .233 clip to Georgia’s .229, but it was not enough to even up the match.
The Bulldogs carried the momentum into the third set, capturing the first six points and forcing an early LSU timeout. The Tigers never could recover, dropping the final stanza, 25-16.
The Tigers’ next match will be at Auburn on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. as they will look to rebound against their division rivals.