BATON ROUGE ? Marina Skender, Brittnee Cooper and Michele Williams racked up a combined 40 kills on a scorching .388 hitting percentage to power the No. 17 LSU volleyball team to an efficient 3-0 sweep of Mississippi State [25-18, 25-21, 25-20] Friday at the Maravich Center.
Skender knocked 14 kills and tacked on 10 digs en route to her team-leading 13th double-double of the season. She has tallied a double-double in seven of her last eight outings. Cooper and Williams crushed 13 kills apiece as both attacked at over a .400 clip. Cooper also chipped in four blocks.
Sam Dabbs passed out a match-best 40 assists and added six digs as the Tigers remained in sole possession of second place and a half-match behind Kentucky in the overall SEC standings.
“Our middle blockers [Cooper and Williams], when we pass well, are awfully difficult to defend,” head coach Fran Flory said. “It’s tough because they’re two different styles so you’ve got to try to have the right type of middle blocker against each of them. It’s hard to have that. Our backcourt did a great job of controlling the ball, and Sam Dabbs did a great job of setting again.”
LSU (23-5, 17-2 SEC) has now won 16 of its last 17 matches and extended its winning streak to 29 over SEC Western Division opponents dating back to the 2006 season.
Lauren Waclawczyk corralled a match-high 19 digs, while Sam Delahoussaye and Lauren DeGirolamo accounted for eight digs each.
Caitlin Race recorded nine kills and Dorey Gray distributed 28 assists to go along with 11 digs to pace Mississippi State (8-22, 4-15 SEC), who had their two-match winning streak come to a close.
LSU closes out the home portion of its regular season schedule Sunday against Alabama. First serve is slated for 1:30 p.m. and the Tigers will honor their senior class following the match. Live video and live stats available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. Fans also can follow in-match updates of the five-time SEC Western Division champions via www.twitter.com/lsuvolleyball.
Tickets are now on-sale at www.LSUSports.net/tickets, the official Web site of LSU Athletics. Tickets also can be purchased at the ticket office on the first floor of the Athletics Administration Building or by calling (225) 578-2184. LSU students, faculty and staff are admitted free with a valid LSU ID.
LSU volleyball is offering the Friends and Family Pass where fans receive four tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks for only $20.
LSU vs. Mississippi State
November 20, 2009
Head Coach Fran Flory
Opening statement…
“We did a really good job of controlling the first contact during the first two sets. When we do that, [Sam] Dabbs is really good. We exploited some things that Mississippi State gave us. They didn’t defend the three [ball] very well in the first two sets. Give them credit because in the third set they adjusted and took that away. They made us find another place to score. For the first two sets, we were pretty good in that play.”
On the offensive attack…
“Our middle blockers [Cooper and Williams], when we pass well, are awfully difficult to defend. It’s tough because they’re two different styles so you’ve got to try to have the right type of middle blocker against each of them. It’s hard to have that. Our backcourt did a great job of controlling the ball, and Sam Dabbs did a great job of setting again.
“I even thought Brittany Johnson came in during the last part of the third set and did a good job. We got in trouble and had to put Dabbs, our security blanket, back in the match. It wasn’t Johnson’s fault that we weren’t finishing.
On the back row defense…
“Part of blocking is channeling the ball and I thought we did a good job of that. We don’t have the blocks on the stat sheet. However, when the defense is digging that many balls, the first line of defense is the block. If that breaks down, it’s awfully hard to play backcourt defense. I thought that although we didn’t put up the blocking numbers we wanted, they did a good job of keeping us within our system.”
On Sunday’s regular season finale against Alabama…
“The only thing we can do is take care of our side. Every LSU-Alabama match is a war, and has been from the onset. They are a quality team, they have some great players, and they have a couple of seniors who are going to play their hearts out to finish on the right note for them. I think we’re going to have to be much better in terms of our intensity level to be successful.”
Libero Lauren Waclawczyk
On the win against Mississippi State to open Senior Weekend…
“We came out and we played hard. We had a few holes here and there, but we got the ?W’. That’s all that really counts right now. It feels really good to give that to the seniors. They’ve worked so hard to get us to that point. Nothing’s going to mess us up now. We’re going to keep going strong and get the momentum going for the match against Alabama.”
On the middle blockers…
“It was fun to get back into a rhythm, especially with our middle blockers. Michele Williams, as well as Brittnee Cooper, did a great job just running at them. If they weren’t going to stop us, then we were going to just keep running them. I think our passing did a good job of making that happen for them. Credit to the passers, credit to Sam Dabbs, who also did a great job, and credit to our good middle blockers.”
On the match against Alabama…
“Fran’s been warning us that people are trying to knock us off. I think everyone’s going to bring their ?A’ game against us, especially Alabama. It’s Senior Day and we’re going to be fighting for every ball for them. It’s going to be a fun day.”