SAN ANTONIO, Texas. – With the match tied at one and trailing in the third, the LSU volleyball team roared to life and changed the momentum of the contest by coming back to take the third and cruising in the fourth to defeat the Baylor Bears 25-23, 25-19, 28-26, 25-19, in the opening match of the UTSA Classic Friday afternoon.
Behind three players in double figure kills, LSU (3-4) hit .286 during the match, powering home 65 kills in the win over the Bears (9-3), even though the opposition hit .295 over the course of the day.
“I was proud of how we were resilient today,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We didn’t necessarily play pretty volleyball all day, but we never lost our composure. We maintained our poise and composure, and we when we do that we can always give ourselves a chance to win.”
Briana Holman led LSU with 18 kills on a .378 average to go along with her seven blocks, followed by Cati Leak‘s 15 and Mimi Eugene‘s new career-best 13. Leak hit .236, while Eugene hit .241, , along with Madi Mahaffey‘s .300 on four kills and Katie Lindelow‘s .273 average on her nine kills.
“We have some special players, and honestly we’re still trying to figure out how to put the best group together,” Flory said. “We had a lot of great play, but I think the play of Katie was the stabilizing force for us today.”
Malorie Pardo served up a season high 49 assists, capturing 10 digs for the Tigers earning her fourth double-double of the season. Haley Smith led LSU with 11, as LSU had five players with six or more digs on the day.
Two other positive aspects of the day for LSU came at the net as the group earned 10 team blocks to Baylor’s four, while the Tigers produced eight service aces, getting two each from Holman, Leak and Smith, with Kelly Quinn and Eugene adding the other two.
LSU hit a blistering .343 in the first set with 18 kills to take control of the match early, while Baylor was held to just a .200 clip with only 13. Holman was a force with seven kills and a .600 average, followed by Leak who had five kills and a .300 mark. Pardo served up 14 assists and had five digs
The tense back-and-forth between the two teams in the first set began to show its first sign of cracks midway through, as the Tigers rallied from a two-point deficit to go on a 4-0 run to take 12-10 lead and force Baylor to take a timeout. Kills from Leak, Eugene and Holman, coupled with a Holman and Leak block aided in the Tiger rally.
Although Baylor would come back to tie the set in the first two points, the Tigers would not be outdone and went on another four-point swing powered by back-to-back Holman kills among the points to make it 16-12. It eventually grew to 18-13 as Baylor called its second and final timeout to try and regroup. Baylor would go on to make it close in the end pulling within two at 20-18 and then one at 24-23, but LSU ended the first with a Eugene kill to clinch.
LSU came back down to earth a bit offensively as Baylor picked up their defensive intensity, holding LSU to a .143 clip and eight errors, while hitting .400 and connecting on 14 kills. The Bears also produced four blocks to LSU’s one, earning eight digs to LSU’s five.
There were seven ties and only two lead changes throughout the set, all coming within the first 20 combined points of the second. A Holman kill tied the set for the final time with the two teams knotted at 10-10, as from there the Bears began to slowly claw away from Tigers, going up 20-16 to force LSU’s final timeout of the frame as Baylor claimed the set 25-19.
A controversial point coming early in the third wouldn’t be the most thrilling part of the set, as LSU would hold the lead, only to lose it and storm back to take the set late in extra points 28-26, getting outhit .282-.220. The Tigers got seven kills from Leak and six from Holman among the team’s 19 as a whole, as Pardo served up 16 assists in the frame alone.
After a point was called in favor of Baylor, the Tigers argued and after a huddle by the officials awarded the point to LSU to make it 9-5. Although it seemed like it would spur the Tigers on to the set victory, the team saw a 17-11 lead evaporate as the Bears came back to take control and get to set point at 24-22.
Instead, LSU weathered through and got kills from Leak and Eugene to tie the set at 24. The two groups traded ties and briefly held leads, but the Tigers closed out the match with three straight points getting two kills from Holman and a block from her and Lindelow to cap the comeback and go up 2-1 in the match.
Although Baylor made things hairy in the fourth set, the Tigers were in control from the start, racing out to a 7-3 lead to force Baylor’s hand and call a timeout. Lindelow drilled one of her six kills in the fourth to put LSU up 20-15, with the Bears getting no closer than four points for the rest of the match as the Tigers closed it out 25-19.
Match Two: LSU 3, UTSA 1
Briana Holman notched a career high 23 kills on a season best .475 hitting percentage as the LSU volleyball team earned a sweep of Friday’s action by defeating the host UTSA Roadrunners 3-1 (27-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18) in the evening match on the first day of the UTSA Classic.
After dropping the second set, the Tigers (4-4) came out with a renewed energy in the match and took the final two in convincing fashion, holding the Roadrunners (3-7) to a .196 hitting percentage, while hitting .252 themselves and converting 55 percent of their sideout chances with a 77-percent clip in the final set alone.
Along with Holman, Gina Tillis nabbed a new career best 11 kills on 26 swings for a .231 average, while Cati Leak had nine and had 10 digs. Malorie Pardo served up 38 assists in the victory, while Haley Smith had 14 digs to lead LSU.
The Tigers as a whole once again found a way to make a difference in multiple facets, getting nine service aces, with two coming from Holman, Smith and Mimi Eugene, while combining for 14 team blocks led by Holman’s eight and Pardo’s six.
“I was tired of us being one of the poorer serving teams in the league, and that’s been a point of emphasis and we proved today that we are a tough serving team,” Fran Flory said. “Anytime you have Bri Holman blocking you are going to be a good blocking team. I think our pins did a great job of getting in front of hitters and overall they did a good job of following the game plan and terminating kills at the net.”
Holman proved to be much of the offense for LSU in the first set, accounting for six of LSU’s 12 kills in the set, as the Tigers hit .114 in the frame against UTSA. The Roadrunners weren’t much more capable, hitting .176 with 15 kills and nine errors.
Two different LSU sides showed itself in the set, as LSU battled back from a three-point deficit to go on an 8-1 run to take an 8-4 lead over UTSA and force the first roadrunner timeout. But right after that, UTSA stormed back and made things close through the next dozen or so points, leading back to LSU going back up 18-15 to force UTSA’s second timeout after a Eugene ace.
The lead would again be short lived as UTSA made the Tigers work from that point on, with the Roadrunners continuing to chip away and force the bulk of the 15 ties and seven lead changes in the set during this run. Although the Tigers had set point leading 24-23, there would be two ties and two lead changes combined for both sides, but with at 25-25, kills from Tillis and Leak ended the first in favor of the Tigers.
Although LSU was able to gain some momentum late, they were unable to overcome the mistakes of the early part of the second set, falling to UTSA 25-21 in the second, although the team was able to hit .212 to UTSA’s .167.
There were only two ties and two lead changes in the frame, as the Roadrunners broke a 5-all tie and went on a four point swing to take the lead for good and not look back. At one point up 20-12, it seemed as if the home side was going to be able to cruise easily, but the Tigers went on a late rally by outscoring UTSA 8-2 to pull within two at 22-20, but the team ran out of gas and only mustered another point from there.
The Tigers turned it around in the third, using the quicker-than-normal intermission to regroup and played better hitting .200, getting four kills from Tillis in the set to lead LSU. The defense was also there as LSU dug up 18 shots in the set, the most for the team up until that point in the entire match.
The first 22 points of the set led to eight ties and five lead changes, culminating in a big LSU rally that saw the team go up 17-13 thanks to points by Leak, Katie Lindelow and Holman to force a Roadrunner timeout. The lead grew more thanks to a 4-1 run by the Tigers to lead 21-14 and force UTSA to call another timeout.
UTSA made it interesting, pulling within three at 23-20, but LSU held from there getting a kill from Tillis and a Cheyenne Wood ace to seal it 25-20.
The effort that the Tigers had in the third made its way to the fourth, as LSU completely dominated and put any doubts of a UTSA comeback to bed by hitting .536, led by Holman who had 10 of the team’s 16 kills in the set to go along with two blocks.
With a three-point lead by LSU up 20-17, the Tigers held the Roadrunners to just one more point for the rest of the match, as Holman had a hand in nearly every play, getting three kills and assisting with Pardo on the block to seal the match for LSU.
The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, taking on Baylor at 12 p.m. in the team’s final match of the UTSA Classic.
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