BATON ROUGE — Led by senior Kyna Washington‘s double-double of 12 kills and 10 digs, the LSU volleyball team captured its sixth-straight victory by beating Georgia, 19-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-16, in the regular season finale on Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (18-9, 13-7 SEC) closed out the regular season by winning seven of its last 10 matches and claiming the Southeastern Conference Western Division title. Georgia (17-14, 10-10) ended the regular season in fifth place in the SEC East.
“We tried to be too good in the first set, and we have to execute, take care of the ball on our side and do what we do,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “For the last two or three weeks we settled into that, but our team got challenged when Georgia got a nice run on us early. I am happy that the seniors won their last match on our court. Both played with passion and attitude, and it was great that they and the team could do this at the end.”
In the first set Georgia pulled away after both teams were knotted at 18 apiece. The Bulldogs scored five straight points and seven of the last eight to take the first set, 25-19. LSU responded in the second by holding Georgia to a -.062 attack percentage and won the set easily after racing out to an 8-1 advantage. With the Bulldogs leading 20-14 in the third set and looking like they were going to take a 2-1 lead in the match, the Tigers rallied to win the next 11 points to win the set, 25-20. In the fourth set LSU jumped out to a 14-5 lead and never looked back as the Tigers put the Bulldogs away, 25-16.
Both seniors, Washington and Elena Martinez, had spectacular final matches at home as both moved up in the LSU record books. Besides Washington’s 35th career double-double she also recorded five service aces, which ties a career high. Washington now has 156 aces in her career which moves her into ninth place on the all-time list. Martinez tallied 24 digs against Georgia, the 12th match this season she has finished with double-digit digs, and the 24 digs gives her a career total of 1,383 which ranks second in LSU history.
Freshman Michele Williams also led the Tigers against Georgia as she recorded 11 kills and had a match-high seven blocks. Junior Brittnee Cooper finished with a .318 attack percentage and 11 kills to help pace the offensive effort while sophomore Angela Bensend led the team with a career-high .583 hitting percentage to go along with seven kills.
Georgia was led by senior outside hitter Maria Taylor who finished with 10 kills and eight digs and sophomore middle blocker Valentina Gonzalez who recorded 10 kills and had four blocks, including one solo. Erika Clark and Carla Tietz both finished with 10 digs for the Bulldogs.
LSU will now await its postseason fate as the NCAA Tournament selection show will air Sunday at 9 p.m. CST on ESPNU.