GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? Marina Skender and Brittnee Cooper combined for 36 kills to fuel the No. 19 LSU volleyball team to a gritty 3-1 victory over No. 10 Florida [24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-17] Friday at the O’Connell Center in-front of 2,875 fans.
Skender powered home a season-best 20 kills and connected on 12 of her 27 swings without an attack error over the final two sets. She also tacked on 15 digs for team-leading 12th double-double. The Croatia native has provided a double-double in six of her last seven outings for the Tigers.
Cooper racked up 16 kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Sam Dabbs also notched a double-double with 46 assists to go along with 14 digs. She set LSU to a match-high.483 attack clip during the fourth set.
“This is a huge road win,” Dabbs said. “Marina and Brittnee played amazing and are clutch players that we can rely on anytime we’re in trouble. They made big plays for us when we needed them the most.”
Angela Bensend added seven kills, while Michele Williams knocked four kills and tallied a match-best five blocks. Lauren Waclawczyk, Lauren DeGirolamo and Sam Delahoussaye provided back-row support and chipped in 15, 13 and 11 digs, respectively.
With the victory, LSU (21-5, 15-2 SEC) took sole possession of second place in the overall SEC standings. The Tiger senior class of Cooper, Dabbs, DeGirolamo and Skender has won in every SEC road venue and joined the 1991 Final Four team as the last LSU squad to defeat Florida (20-4, 14-3 SEC) twice in the same season.
LSU also became the first SEC Western Division school to knock off the Gators at the O’Connell Center since the Tigers accomplished that feat back in 1990, a streak that stretched over 72 matches.
“I’m so happy for our four seniors and they have fought many battles,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Sam managed the offense well and we were able to get Cooper into the groove during the last two sets. Marina was phenomenal and Lauren did an excellent job of keeping us in critical rallies. The bottom line is that we proved that we’re mentally tough. Florida is a tough place to play and it was huge for us to fight through this type of a match.”
LSU jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the first set aided by a pair of Cooper kills. A solo block by Skender on Lauren Bledsoe pushed the Tiger lead to 16-10. Florida used a pair of LSU attack errors and an ace to fuel a 6-1 spurt to pull back to 17-16. After a LSU timeout, the Tigers fired back with three straight points to retake a 20-16 lead. At 23-19, Florida put together a strong finishing kick as the Tigers made four hitting miscues en route to seven of the frame’s final eight points to claim a 26-24 win.
The two teams split the first 20 points of set two before the Gators received two blocks to go up 13-10. Down 18-14, LSU reeled off 11 of the final 16 points of the frame. A three-point run was capped by a Williams ace to make it 18-17. The Tigers continued its strong play with a Cooper spike and back-to-back Kristy Jaeckel hitting errors that allowed LSU to grab a 21-20 edge. Florida responded with consecutive kills from Callie Rivers and Jaeckel to retake a 23-22 lead. LSU charged back with a final surge behind a Gator service error, ball handling error and a Williams transition spike to take a 25-23 victory.
LSU turned up the defensive pressure and forced the Gators into six early hitting errors to build a 15-9 advantage to start the third set. Florida would get no closer than five points as the Tigers came away with a 25-19 win. Skender popped seven kills, while LSU limited Florida to a .171 hitting percentage. Waclawczyk and DeGirolamo corralled five digs apiece in the frame for the Tigers.
LSU saved its best offensive execution and cranked a match-best .483 hitting percentage in set four. At 13-13, the Tigers notched a 7-1 run as Skender and Bensend combined for five spikes as LSU surged ahead 20-14. Florida crept back to 22-17, but the Tigers received kills from Skender and Cooper coupled with a Waclawczyk ace for the 25-17 romp. Dabbs distributed 14 of her 15 helpers to Cooper, Skender and DeGirolamo. Cooper connected on all six of her swings in the frame.
“We were letting the ball get to us rather than getting to the ball,” Flory said. “We were a little passive and didn’t find the rhythm. The thing was we could feel it coming but we couldn’t finish. A couple of touches got us the confidence we needed to get rolling.”
LSU wraps up its four-match road swing Sunday at South Carolina. First serve is on-tap for 12:30 p.m. CT and live stats will be available on LSUsports.net. Fans can follow in-match updates of the five-time SEC Western Division champions via www.twitter.com/lsuvolleyball.