OXFORD, Miss. – Desiree Elliott ripped a career-best 13 kills to go along with four blocks but it wasn’t enough as the No. 12 LSU volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to Ole Miss [21-25, 18-25, 18-25] Friday at the Gillom Sports Center on Fox Sports Network.
“Desi was very good for us,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We couldn’t get the ball to her enough and stay in those rotations [that she plays in]. We didn’t have good defense behind us to get those transition swings and point scoring opportunities.”
LSU (17-2, 8-2 SEC) had its 34-match SEC Western Division winning streak dating back to the 2006 season come to a close. The Tigers were limited to a season-low .111 hitting percentage after playing their fourth match in eight days.
With the win, Ole Miss (13-5, 7-2 SEC) pulled within a half-match of the Tigers in the division race.
“We could never really get on track, and you have to credit Ole Miss,” Flory said. “They just outplayed us, outfought us and were more physical than us. They were the better team tonight.”
Angela Bensend had her 11-match run of double digit kills end as the Rebels held the SEC leader in kills per set to seven spikes in addition to 11 attack errors to a season-low -.108 hitting clip. The Plano, Texas, native did record 12 digs on defense.
Michele Williams turned in a season-low five kills, while Brittney Johnson handed out 28 assists. Madie Jones knocked three kills on eight swings.
Lauren Waclawczyk sprawled out for a match-best 18 digs, while Sam Delahoussaye corralled 11 digs of her own for the Tigers.
Ole Miss jumped out to a 15-7 lead in the opening set before the Tigers charged back with 13 of the next 18 points to even the tally at 20-20 sparked by a trio of Elliott kills and three blocks, two of them involving Elliott. The Rebels regrouped to reel off five of the next six points aided by two Bensend attack errors and an ace to notch the 25-21 win.
Ole Miss used the same formula in sets two and three for identical 25-18 victories to secure their fourth consecutive sweep. Whitney Craven and Allegra Wells garnered nine kills each to fuel Ole Miss.
“The bottom line is our team didn’t play very well,” Flory said. “We didn’t show much character or heart. Certainly, that’s very disappointing. I think we will gain some confidence out of this through our work next week in the gym. We have to look at this as a new start to the second half of our SEC season. There’s plenty more matches left and our kids will respond.”
LSU opens the second half of its SEC schedule Friday at Georgia. First serve is slated for 6 p.m. CT with live stats available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. Fans also can follow live in-match updates on the team’s official blog at http://lsuvolleyball.posterous.com.