TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After suffering a tough defeat the day before, the LSU volleyball team turned the page to Saturday on a mission, as the group stormed out of the gate defeating the Samford Bulldogs in four sets, 25-23, 26-28, 25-7, 25-23, to open the final day of competition for the team at the 2014 Four Points by Sheraton Seminole Invitational on Saturday.
In the process of snapping a two-match losing skid, the Tigers (2-3) also gave head coach Fran Flory her 300th win as LSU head coach, becoming only the second Tiger head coach to do so in program history along with Scott Luster. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native now sits eight shy of tying Luster for the most by an LSU coach during a tenure, and nine from owning the mark.
“The Samford match was a win that we had to have,” Flory said. “I thought we played ok, but we didn’t have the tenacity that I thought we needed in a match like that, but I was proud of the effort.”
The Tigers got a much better effort all around hitting .294 as a group, getting a game-high in kills from sophomore Briana Holman who had 19 and seven blocks for the Tigers. Holman was aided by all-tournament team pick Cati Leak who earned her second double-double of the season, and first of two on the day, with her 11 kills and 12 digs for LSU.
Malorie Pardo served up a game-leading 38 assists, while Haley Smith earned the game’s high in digs with 17. The youth of the team also showed out well, with Mimi Eugene earning nine kills and hit .412, while Gina Tillis had eight and hit .368. The youth as a whole played well with Elly Ogle having five assists, Cheyenne Wood having five digs and Kelly Quinn adding two digs.
“Our freshmen are going to have to be significant, and that’s what has to happen,” Flory said. “They are going to have to gain experience and be an important part in the outcome of our matches later in the season.”
Defensively, the Tigers were stout at the net combining for a season best 14 blocks, as along with Holman, Pardo had five, with Madi Mahaffey had four, including shutting down three solo. Samford (3-6) hit just .159 in the group, getting most of its kill production from just two players in Erin Bognar and Micahela Reeser who combined for 31 of their 44.
The seven points LSU held the Bulldogs to in the third is tied for the fourth fewest given up by an LSU team in a single set, and is the third time LSU has held a team to that many since 2011.
Looking to wash out the taste of yesterday’s loss, the Tigers had their hands full with Samford in the first set, as the two sides battled through 14 ties and four lead changes. Every time the Tigers tried to get any sizeable lead over the Bulldogs, Samford would mount a comeback to tie it up. LSU hit .361 in getting five kills each from Holman and Leak, while converting 75 percent of its sideout chances.
Things really picked up at the end of the set, as with the match tied at 20, as three of the 14 ties would come in the next six points, with LSU getting its points from a Mahaffey kill and two unforced Samford errors, while the Bulldogs got two kills and an unforced error to knot the set at 23-23. Fortunately for the Tigers, a Eugene kill and set-clinching kill by Holman put LSU on top 25-23.
LSU, with the set tied at 9-9, went on to outscore the Bulldogs 6-1 over the course of the next seven points to take a 15-10 lead with a Leak service ace doing the trick. The Tigers weren’t done, as LSU went back on another tear to go up 20-15 powered by a three-point swing at the end, thanks to a Tillis solo block, unforced error and Eugene kill to force a Bulldog timeout.
However, the Bulldogs refused to quit and rattled off the next five points in a row to tie the set and take the momentum back from the Tigers. From that point it was a completely new set, even still LSU had an opportunity to close out the second up 24-23, but the Bulldogs refused to quit and fought through two set points for the Tigers to tie it up at 26, eventually getting the final two points to knot the match at one set each.
Whatever the intermission break featured for the Tigers worked, as LSU exploded out of the gate and never looked back in dominating the third set 25-7, getting nine of the first 10 points of the set to go up 9-1 early. Holman had four of her seven kills in the set and a solo block during that run, hitting .875 in the set, while holding the Bulldogs to just six kills and getting 12 total team digs with four from Smith and Leak to aid in the defensive effort.
After getting trounced in the previous set, the Bulldogs were able to regroup and put forth a much better team effort in the fourth, but even with that effort the Tigers were up 17-14 after a Tillis kill and looking to close out the match for good. Instead, Samford decided to test LSU’s mettle by going on a 4-1 swing to make it 18-all. But after a service error to put the Tigers up by one, the Bulldogs scored the next three to go up 20-19 and force an LSU timeout.
At that point, it was LSU’s turn to play spoiler and try to force the comeback, and with the score 23-21 in favor of Samford, the Bulldogs called a timeout after a Holman kill up one at 23-22. Looking to calm their team down, all it did was give LSU a short break as they would claim the set with consecutive Tillis kills and a Samford Attach error to seal the victory.
Game Two: No. 7 Florida State 3, LSU 1
The LSU volleyball team stunned the packed Tully Gym crowd by taking the first set over the No. 7 ranked Florida State Seminoles, but the home side got stronger as the match went on and claimed a four set, 25-19, 19-25, 23-25, 16-25, victory over the Tigers to end the 2014 Four Points by Sheraton Seminole Invitational Saturday night in Tallahassee.
The Tigers (2-4) had two players finish with double-digit kills and four finish with double-digit digs, but the Seminoles (8-0), after hitting in the negatives in the opening frame, came back to hit above .250 for the rest of the match to overtake LSU in the end and claim the win.
“I was absolutely proud of our effort tonight, because I think we gave Florida State all it could handle tonight,” Flory said. “I challenged them before the match and told them that sometimes you have to play for something greater than yourself. I thought they did that and the fight demonstrated the fact that they do have something more in them.”
Cati Leak led all players with 18 kills and earned the double-double with her 12 digs on the night, finishing with a hitting percentage of .265. Briana Holman added 14 kills with a .345 average and six blocks.
“Cati was balanced and she did it all for us today,” Flory said. “It was a very veteran effort from Cati and the effort we’ve been looking for from the upperclassmen. She really had a great weekend, and very proud of her effort.”
Haley Smith had a team-leading 22 digs to lead a quartet of Tigers with double figure digs, as Katie Lindelow had 16 to go with her seven kills, while Malorie Pardo earned a double-double with 42 assists and 12 digs.
Florida State had three players finish with double-digit kills, led by Milica Kubura’s 15. The Seminoles proved to be solid in the serve game, ending the night with eight service aces to LSU’s two.
After getting that first win earlier in the day, the momentum of LSU’s play carried over into the opening set of the match against the Seminoles, as the Tigers went on a 6-0 run nearly out of the gate to take the lead and never look back, getting five kills from Leak and four from Holman, while holding FSU to -.024 hitting.
With the set tied at 3-3, a kill by Leak jumpstarted the Tiger rally, as by the time it was finished with Holman and Leak block LSU was leading 9-3 and went up even further going on top 12-4 forcing FSU to use both of its timeouts. Getting great all-around play from the group while the Seminoles struggled offensively allowed the Tigers to take a 10-point, 20-10 lead, and from there it was all about withstanding a late FSU rally to seal it 25-19.
The second set saw the Seminoles come out with a much better offensive front than it showed in the match opener, hitting a blistering .250 with 16 kills to just four errors, while LSU was able to keep pace with a .214 clip with 12 kills and only three errors. The difference came in the 85-percent side out conversion rate for the Seminoles in the set, going 17-for-20 to LSU’s 16-for-24.
Eight consecutive kills to open the second set the tone for how the match would go, however it was FSU that stormed out and took a big lead breaking a 1-1 tie, the only tie of the set, and went up 5-2 to build up a small lead. From that point, LSU was playing catch-up, and was able to make it interesting, pulling within three at 17-14, but a 2-1 point differential for FSU forced an LSU timeout down 19-15.
LSU went on a run of its own, outscoring the Seminoles 3-1 to pull within two at 20-18, but the Tigers only mustered another point for the rest of the set falling 25-19.
The third had all the action and more during its tense 25-23 outcome for Florida State, with LSU hitting .317 with 17 kills, while FSU tallied 15 and hit .289 on the other side of the net. Leak produced one of her better sets of the match with six kills and .333 average, while Pardo served up 14 assists and had five digs.
The apex of the set came with the Tigers down 17-13 and heading into a timeout. Coming out of the short break, LSU went on to score five of the next six points to tie the set at 18-all thanks to some FSU unforced errors and kills from Holman and Mahaffey to force a Seminole timeout. It was a new set at that point with both sides earning a brief lead culminating in a 22-22 tie, FSU got back-to-back points before a Leak kill and another FSU point to end the set.
With so much energy put into the first three sets, the Tigers weathered the storm and fought through a tough FSU group that seemed to get stronger as the match went on, mustering only nine kills as a group to Florida State’s 17. Holman clobbered five, while Leak and Tillis each had two.
With the set tied 4-4 after a Tillis and Mahaffey block, FSU went on a 7-3 jaunt that extended its lead to 12-7 to force an LSU timeout. The lead grew for the Seminoles, eventually going up 19-10, with LSU able to get six more points in the set before Florida State closed the door with the 25-16 match-clincher.
LSU will be back in action next week, traveling to take part in the UTSA Classic in San Antonio.
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