BATON ROUGE – Madie Jones racked up 10 of her match-high 18 kills during sets three and four to propel the No. 16 LSU volleyball to a 3-1 triumph over Ole Miss [23-25, 25-15, 28-26, 25-21] Sunday at the Maravich Center.
“We moved Madie [Jones] to create a more [opportunities] for her,” head coach Fran Flory said. “She’s getting some nice swings on the right side. She’s able to get some seams because we’re creating more with our middles. Certainly when you have in-system swings, those are the ones you expect to have put away, but those are also the ones Ole Miss did a great job in defending. I think that was a great performance by Madie.”
With the victory, LSU (22-2, 13-2 SEC) grabbed the momentum in the SEC Western Division race and extended its lead to 2.5 matches over the Rebels (17-8, 11-5 SEC). The Tigers also won their 11th straight match at home to start the 2010 season.
LSU’s defense was all over the court and limited Ole Miss to a paltry .111 hitting percentage. Lauren Waclawczyk secured a match-best 20 digs and pushed her double digit digs streak to 11 matches. The San Antonio, Texas, native also reached the 20-dig plateau for the sixth time in 2010.
Meghan Mannari reeled in a career-best 17 digs, while Sam Delahoussaye picked up 15 scoops. The duo has contributed a combined 21 double figure dig efforts for the season.
“The fact that we were able to handle, match and better Ole Miss’ defense is great,” Flory said. “They’re the best defensive team in the league. They dig more hard driven balls. I’m really proud of our defensive effort in my mind was the determining factor in this match.”
Angela Bensend tallied 16 digs to go along with 14 kills en route to her seventh double-double of the season. Michele Williams chipped in 10 kills followed by Desiree Elliott‘s eight kills and six blocks.
Tania Schatow continued her strong play and equaled a season-high seven kills on a .538 hitting clip in addition to five stuffs on the defensive end. Brittney Johnson handed out 47 assists and added nine digs to fall just short of her 10th double-double.
The first set featured 12 ties and four lead changes as either team could build more than a three-point advantage. Tied at 18-18, the Rebels received back-to-back Whitney Craven and Allegra Wells kills couple with block on Bensend to go ahead 21-18. After a LSU timeout, the Tigers charged back to one point on four separate occasions, the latest at 24-23. Miranda Kitts powered home a critical sideout to hand Ole Miss a 25-23 win.
“We were having a really hard time communicating with each other and that’s something we weren’t doing,” Jones said. “We weren’t motivating each other on the court. We weren’t telling each other what we were seeing across the net so I think that’s one big adjustment we really made. We all stepped up in our own way, and we were able to come out and finish the match.”
LSU raced out to a 4-0 lead to start set two behind strong defense, which forced Wells into three consecutive attack errors. Ahead 13-10, the Tigers ran off six of the next seven points to take control of the frame sparked by a pair of kills from Bensend and Williams. A Schatow kill up the middle closed out the 25-15 victory and evened the match at a set apiece.
Out of the locker room, Ole Miss jumped out a quick 4-1 spread aided by a trio of LSU hitting miscues. The Rebels maintained that lead for a majority of the frame. Down 23-22, Jones cranked consecutive spikes to turn the tables and vault LSU to a 24-23 lead. The two teams traded five sideouts before Elliott belted back-to-back kills that ended long rallies to secure a gritty 28-26 win.
“It felt really good because in practice we practice tight games,” Schatow said. “It felt good to be in a tight game situation and finish.”
LSU battled back from a 17-15 deficit in the fourth set behind eight quick points on Mannari’s serve. Bensend kickstarted the rally with three kills and Elliott tacked on two blocks to make it 23-17. The Rebels fought back to 24-21, but Williams clinched the 25-21 victory with a sideout spike.
“We didn’t have good tempo, we didn’t have good rhythm and Benny [Bensend] managed that really well,” Flory said. “She got really frustrated through the middle [of the match] but then showed great senior leadership in the end and came through when we needed her to.”
LSU heads into the home stretch of the regular season and meets No. 22 Tennessee for a rare Friday afternoon tilt in Knoxville. First serve is slated for 2:30 p.m. CT.
Live stats are available on LSUsports.net inside the Geaux Zone. Fans also can follow live in-match updates on the team’s official blog at http://lsuvolleyball.posterous.com.
Volleyball Postmatch Quotes
No. 16 LSU vs. Ole Miss – November 7, 2010
HEAD COACH FRAN FLORY
On grinding out a win today…
“I thought we played in the beginning of the match not to lose rather than just attacking and playing to win. As we got through the match, you have to credit Ole Miss because they are such a great defensive team. They frustrate the heck out of you offensively because you get a great swing, and they’re going to get a dig to the target then they come at you really fast. I don’t know if we had our team prepared well enough for that. I’ll take some of the responsibility and blame for that. Our team showed great perseverance coming back and managing that portion of the match. I thought we bounced back well in the third and fourth sets.”
On Madie Jones‘ performance…
“We moved Madie [Jones] to create a more [opportunities] for her. She’s getting some nice swings on the right side. She’s able to get some seams because we’re creating more with our middles and sending them different places so she’s having better opportunities in system. Certainly when you have in-system swings, those are the ones you expect to have put away, but those are also the ones today Ole Miss did a great job in defending. I think that’s a great performance by Madie.”
On Angela Bensend stepping up in the fourth set…
“For Benny [Bensend] to hit .206 tonight with the situations and the opportunities that she got is again a great effort. We didn’t have good tempo, we didn’t have good rhythm and she managed that really well. She got really frustrated through the middle [of the match] but then showed great senior leadership in the end and came through when we needed her to.”
On Tania Schatow‘s performance…
“This was a great performance for Tania [Schatow] and we’ve created some opportunities. I think other teams didn’t feel like they really had to defend her on the right side. You have to defend Tania in the middle and that opens up for other people when they have to do that. It was a great effort and she continues to get better and better in that new role. Hopefully, she’ll continue to do that in the next few matches.”
On the defensive effort…
“The fact that we were able to handle, match and better Ole Miss’ defense is great. They’re the best defensive team in the league. They dig more hard driven balls. I’m really proud of our defensive effort in my mind was the determining factor in this match.”
On playing at Tennessee and Kentucky coming up…
“This is key road trip for us in terms of preparing for the NCAA tournament and two NCAA Tournament type teams that we’ll play. Tennessee is always a tough match and we haven’t had great success at Kentucky since I’ve been here. We need to regroup and get a little bit better. I actually think the style of play this weekend will be a little better for us than the style of play we faced today.”
Middle Blocker Tania Schatow
On going to four sets with Ole Miss…
“I think that we got a little rattled, but we knew what worked. We just settled down and did what works. We believed in everyone, empowered everyone around us and got through it.”
On getting the last two points in the third set…
“It felt really good because in practice we practice tight games. It felt good to be in a tight game situation and finish.”
On Madie Jones‘ performance…
“Madie jones played phenomenal. Her swings were great. Brittney [Johnson] set her really good balls and we worked on the right side during the week. She did phenomenal.”
On blocking today…
“I think that it was because we had all week to prepare, didn’t have a game on Friday, so our legs were fresh. We just knew to press over and be aggressive and we were.”
On Tennessee and Kentucky coming up…
“Those two teams are always really good teams, especially on their home courts. This week we need to focus because we don’t get all week [to prepare] and just work hard.”
Outside Hitter Madie Jones
On going four sets with Ole Miss…
“We’ve been preparing all week for this match. We’re really excited. We wanted to come back since we lost to them the first time around, really play our hearts out and just play for the atmosphere. We did a good job tonight.”
On making adjustments at half time…
“We were having a really hard time communicating with each other and that’s something we weren’t doing. We weren’t motivating each other on the court. We weren’t telling each other what we were seeing across the net so I think that’s one big adjustment we really made. We all stepped up in our own way, and we were able to come out and finish the match.”
On what they were doing right…
“I think we all wanted to prove to ourselves and prove that the first time around we didn’t play as good as we could’ve played. I think we really proved ourselves with this match.”
On going on the road next weekend…
“Those [Tennessee and Kentucky] are also two great teams. We have to prepare really hard this week and just keep going. It’s not over yet, we want to win out in the SEC. That’s one of our goals, and we’re just going to keep going at it.”