FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The LSU volleyball team was held to an .077 hitting percentage, its second-lowest output of the season, as the Tigers were handed a 3-0 defeat by Arkansas [20-25, 19-25, 22-25] on ESPNU’s Wednesday Night Volleyball from Barnhill Arena.
With the victory, Arkansas (15-8, 7-5 SEC) jumped into a first-place tie with LSU (14-8, 7-5 SEC) atop the SEC Western Division standings. It also marked the Razorbacks first win over the Tigers since 2005, a stretch of 11 matches. The last time LSU dropped consecutive SEC West tilts was versus Ole Miss and Alabama during October 2004.
The Razorbacks were paced by Jasmine Norton, who powered home 12 kills and added seven digs. Arkansas also received solid all-around performances as Amanda Anderson compiled eight kills on a match-best .350 hitting percentage and tacked on a match-high six blocks, while Roslandy Acosta chipped in six kills and four blocks.
Reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Week, Christa Alvarez, secured 14 digs. Kelli Stipanovich also reeled in 14 digs and slapped five kills for the Hogs.
“Arkansas played extremely well and beat us on the defensive end,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Our offense could never really get on-track. Madie had a slow start, she’s our barometer. From the first step, we didn’t play as a confident team, but credit Arkansas for taking it to us. They made some great defensive saves and transitioned out of them to score. That’s where the match was won.”
Desiree Elliott cranked a match-high 14 kills to go along with five digs and three blocks. During the first two sets, she powered home eight spikes on a .571 hitting clip.
Madie Jones was limited to eight kills, her lowest total since a 3-0 setback at No. 13 Florida on Oct. 9. Michele Williams and Nicole Willis garnered seven and four kills, respectively, but both posted negative hitting ratios.
The winner of the last two SEC Freshman of the Week awards, Malorie Pardo, dished out 33 assists and secured nine digs to fall just shy of her team-leading ninth double-double.
Meghan Mannari scooped up a match-best 16 digs, while Helen Boyle came away with 11 digs. LSU, the SEC’s leader in digs per set during league matches, could only muster a 59-58 advantage in the back row.
“Desiree was extremely good during the first two sets,” Flory said. “I thought we relied on her too much during the third, and Arkansas was able to slow her down a bit. We’ve made our living with our middles. However, when it’s a match that our pin [outside] hitters need to win for us, we’re going to have to do a better job of creating shots for them to terminate.”
LSU garnered one-point advantages late in the first two sets, but Arkansas used strong finishing kicks on both occasions to vault ahead to a two-set lead.
With LSU leading 18-17 in set one, Norton heated up for the Razorbacks. She ran off five kills coupled with a pair of Tiger attack errors to give Arkansas a 25-20 triumph.
The Razorbacks took advantage of the same formula in the second set. LSU committed five hitting miscues, including three straight from Williams, to claim a 25-19 victory.
Down 22-18 during set three, the Tigers were poised to extend the match. LSU strung together four of the next five points capped by back-to-back Elliott spikes to pull back to 23-22. On a long rally, Elliott swung for the equalizer, but a Norton-Anderson stuff followed by a Pardo attack error propelled Arkansas to the sweep, 25-22.
LSU continues its four-match road trip Sunday at Mississippi State. First serve is on-tap for 1 p.m. and the match will be carried on Cox Sports Television with Melissa Lee and Maria Taylor calling the action.
Live audio and live stats will be offered inside the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net, while in-match updates also are available via the program’s social media outlets at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball or LSU Volleyball on Facebook.
“The only way to fix things is to get some more reps on the practice court,” Flory said. “Our group is awfully tired, but we’ll get a chance not having to play again until Sunday. We’re talking about making so more lineup changes because we need to get some better opportunities and need a stabilizing force. As the season progresses, hopefully we’ll learn from these experiences and when this young team gets put into a situation like that again they can succeed.”