BATON ROUGE – Madie Jones and Nicole Willis pounded nine kills apiece to fuel the LSU volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Alcorn State [25-7, 25-14, 25-12] Friday in the season opener for both teams Friday at the Maravich Center.
For Willis, the nine kills were a career-best. She finished with a .400 hitting percentage and added two blocks.
The Tigers (1-0), who are receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll, improved to 12-2 in season openers under head coach Fran Flory.
Tournament Homepage | Live Stats
“We’re certainly very excited to win our first match of the season,” Flory said. “That’s always the goal. It’s one step closer to reaching some of the goals we have internally within our team. It was a great effort, a nice level of execution, but we’re certainly going to have to get better. Both Madie and Nicole are going to be the cornerstones of our offense. It’s nice that they put up those numbers and that efficient.”
Victoria Jacobsen distributed a career-high 11 assists, while Shelby Pursley and Malorie Pardo passed out eight and seven helpers, respectively. The Tigers ripped 35 kills and finished with a .300 hitting percentage.
Brittani Peska and Avery Striebel posted five kills each during their LSU debuts. Striebel also claimed seven digs from the back row.
Lauren Waclawczyk reeled in seven digs as well, but had her run of 17 straight matches with double digit digs come to a close. Madi Mahaffey chipped in three kills and four blocks.
In the opening frame, LSU raced out to a 14-2 lead as five different players connected for kills. The Tigers never looked back and won the frame in convincing fashion with a 25-7 victory. Jones got off to a fast start and powered home kills on all five of her swings.
The two teams went back-and-forth during the early stages of set two. Alcorn State took its first lead of the match at 12-11, but LSU fired back with 14 of the next 16 points to win going away, 25-14.
The Tigers kept the momentum out of the locker room and built a quick 7-1 advantage to start the third set. Jones and Willis cranked a quartet of kills as LSU rolled to a 25-12 win.
“We know how to play,” Willis said. “At times, I felt we had a good team flow, team tempo and played to our level. It will all come together. I think we need to work a lot of kinks out still, but we’re making progress. We did a lot of good things today.”
LSU continues the Tiger Classic Friday with a 7 p.m. tilt versus Louisiana-Lafayette. Live video and live stats are offered through the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. In-match updates also are available via the program’s social media outlets at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball or LSU Volleyball on Facebook.
“We have to be prepared for a much improved Louisiana-Lafayette team,” Flory said. “This is the best Louisiana-Lafayette that we’ve played in probably the last five years. Their ball control is very solid. They have physical people who can stay with us blocking and offensively. This is going to be a challenge tonight for this young team. We’re going to have to come in really prepaid mentally and physically and certainly I expect that they will.”
Fans are encouraged to take advantage of the Geaux Free program and receive free admission for every home match this season compliments of The Advocate.
Prior to match, LSU volleyball will host a “Serve It Up BBQ” where fans can enjoy free food and entertainment. The first 500 fans also will receive a LSU volleyball drawstring bag.
2011 Tiger Classic
Day 1 Scores/Schedule
Louisiana-Lafayette 3, Jacksonville St. 2 [23-25, 25-18, 13-25, 25-23, 15-13]
LSU 3, Alcorn State 0 [25-7, 25-14, 25-12]
Miami (Fla.) vs. Jacksonville St., 4:30 p.m. CT
LSU vs. UL-Lafayette, 7 p.m. CT
LSU Volleyball Quotes
Alcorn State at LSU – August 26, 2011
LSU Head Coach Fran Flory
Opening Statement…
“We’re certainly very excited to win our first match of the season. That’s always the goal. It’s one step closer to reaching some of the goals we have internally within our team. It’s nice to be able to play a young lineup and get everyone the experience that we’re going to need later in the year.”
On the progression of Nicole Willis…
“Nicole is going to be a very important part of our offense. With nine kills on 15 swings, that’s certainly the type of statistic that we’re hoping that she’ll have. I didn’t think that she was as explosive and as physical as she’s been in practice. It was a great effort, a nice level of execution, but we’re certainly going to have to get better. Both Madie (Jones) and Nicole (Willis) are going to be the cornerstones of our offense. It’s nice that they put up those numbers and that efficient.”
Performance of the three setters…
“I thought they all did a pretty nice job. I thought Victoria (Jacobsen) with limited experience in practice did a nice job. We’re just trying to make sure they have little bit of experience in the what-if situation. I thought Shelby (Pursley) came in, set front row and we had a better offensive flow with Shelby then we even had in practice. That was a positive. When Malorie (Pardo) came in the third set, I thought we had the best weaving on our side of the net that we had the whole match. We certainly weren’t as efficient, but we had nice rhythm. She came in and owned the position a little stronger than the other ones have. I think that’s some positive stuff for us.”
The play of Madi Mahaffey …
“Madi (Mahaffey) is a nice blocker, the goal for her is that she clogs up the middle. She has to be more efficient on our side. She does a nice job of blocking, but she has got to really catch up to the speed to be impacting. Each day she gets a little better and hopefully she will continue to improve.”
Looking forward to Louisiana-Lafayette …
“That’s the talk we just had in the locker room post-match. We have to be prepared for a much improved Louisiana-Lafayette team. This is the best Louisiana-Lafayette that we’ve played in probably the last five years. Their ball control is very solid. They have physical people who can stay with us blocking and offensively. This is going to be a challenge tonight for this young team. We’re going to have to come in really prepaid mentally and physically and certainly I expect that they will.”
LSU Right Side Hitter Nicole Willis
On first game jitters…
“We know how to play. At times, I felt we had a good team flow, team tempo and played to our level. It will all come together. I think we need to work a lot of kinks out still, but we’re making progress. We did a lot of good things today.”
On improvement during the off season…
“(Assistant Coaches) Steve (Loeswick) and Jill (Lytle-Wilson) have been emphasizing a lot of different things to me as far as getting really far back on my approach. They’ve also worked a lot with me on blocking technique and blocking defense. I just want to continue to work to be more overall well-rounded player. Back row is going to come later.”
On impact of her left handed swing…
“I think lefties are rare and lefties are hard to block against. Basically, I just want to add more versatility to an already versatile team and just do anything that I can contribute.”