LOS ANGELES — The LSU volleyball team dropped a hard-fought 3-1 decision (19-25, 25-22, 20-25, 20-25) against No. 14 seed UCLA during the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday evening in front of 1,066 fans at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus.
LSU (18-10) was making its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and had its six match winning streak come to a close. UCLA (21-10) advances to face Duke, a 3-2 winner (26-28, 25-21, 22-25, 25-23, 15-9) over No. 25 San Francisco.
“We couldn’t have been more proud of how hard our kids fought tonight,” head coach Fran Flory said.
“We played excellent defense to stay in the match, but give credit to UCLA. They made the tough plays and we made too many errors on offense that proved to be the difference.”
Sam Dobbs dished out 44 assists and added 13 digs for her seventh double-double of the season. She fueled four Tiger hitters to double-digit kills as Kyna Washington slapped 15 kills and registered 10 digs. Washington concluded her career in sixth place on the program list with 1,473 kills.
Brittnee Cooper tacked on 12 kills and four blocks, while Michele Williams fired in 11 kills on 18 swings for a .500 hitting percentage. Angela Bensend tallied 10 kills for the Tigers.
Elena Martinez anchored the LSU defense with 31 digs and wrapped up her career in second place on the program list with 1,414 digs.
After five ties and a pair of lead changes to open set one, UCLA reeled off five consecutive points to grab a 13-8 advantage. LSU trimmed the deficit to 23-19, but the Bruins responded with back-to-back points for the 25-19 win.
The Tigers fired back in the second set behind six kills on seven swings from Bensend. At 13-13, LSU went on an 8-2 spurt aided by a trio of blocks to pull ahead 21-15. UCLA got to within 23-22, but Washington powered home back-to-back kills for the 25-22 victory to even the match at halftime.
UCLA used late runs to pull away in sets three and four to claim 25-20 wins. Dicey McGraw headlined the Bruins with 13 kills, while Emily Clements notched nine kills on 13 swings in two games. Nellie Spicer passed out 41 assists to go along with 15 digs.
“This group gave us everything we had,” Flory said. “We’ve got a young and experienced nucleus coming back next season. They did a great job of continuing to get better throughout the season and our hopes are to continue to build on what Kyna and Elena started four years ago.”