BATON ROUGE, La. – Playing at home for the first time all season, the LSU volleyball team turned in a strong performance early, but would not be able to contain the 14th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats late as the team fell in four sets, 22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 17-25, Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
After splitting the first two sets 1-1, LSU (5-5, 0-1 SEC) found it tough to keep pace with the Wildcats (11-2, 1-0) in the final two sets of the competition, hitting below .100 for the final two sets of the night and hitting .152 as a whole to Kentucky’s .219.
“It was a great environment and it’s fun to play on your home court for the first time, but we have to find a way to bottle that emotion while maintaining our discipline and consistency,” head coach Fran Flory said.
The Tigers had three players finish with double figure kills led by Briana Holman who had 13 to go along with seven blocks. Katie Lindelow put together another double-double effort, earning 12 kills and 10 digs, while freshman Mimi Eugene had 11 with three digs and three blocks.
Malorie Pardo dished out 42 assists on the night, while Haley Smith had another 20-plus dig match, picking up 22 against the Wildcats.
Kentucky’s Lauren O’Conner led all players with 17 kills and hit .314, followed by Anni Thomasson who produced 13 with eight digs and four blocks. A total of five players had at least six kills or more on the night for the Wildcats, with Morgan Bergren leading the way with 44 of the team’s 53 assists.
“They’re (Kentucky) going to make plays,” Lindelow said. “We need to realize we can make plays too. I think we tried too hard at times and then we backed off at times. We need to stay a little more consistent with what we’re trying to do.”
The Tigers were able to start out strong, jutting out to a 13-9 lead over Kentucky to force the Wildcats into its first timeout, thanks to a 6-0 run with the score tied at nine, led by Eugene who produced three kills in that early portion of the match, with Lindelow providing two. The junior went on to have five kills in the first for the Tigers to lead all players.
However, the Wildcats began to storm back and went on a 6-2 swing to force an LSU timeout with the set tied at 15-all. The Tigers scored four of the next five thanks to a pair of unforced UK errors, service ace from Kelly Quinn and a Lindelow kill to put LSU up 19-16 and force the final Kentucky timeout. The break helped as the Wildcats got the next three, and two more after and LSU timeout as UK would hold serve after a 21-21 tie to take the set 25-22.
The second proved to be just as tense as the first between the two sides, as the Tigers produced a .289 hitting clip to Kentucky’s .273, with a better balance offensively with five players earning at least two kills with Holman’s five leading the way. LSU was about as efficient as it needed to be as well on sideouts, converting 65 percent of those chances to Kentucky’s 60 percent.
With 10 ties in the set alone, the 17-17 knot in the action nearly proved to be disastrous for the visitors as the Tigers rattled off three points behind kills from Lindelow and Madi Mahaffey amid an unforced Wildcat error to make it 20-17 to force a Kentucky timeout. However, the Wildcats battled back from the deficit to tie it 21-21 and set off a chain reaction that saw LSU go up only to see UK come back, with LSU finally overcoming with the game tied at 23-23 with kills from Eugene and Holman to take the set 25-23.
“We tried to work on our sideout game, and whenever they got the point we wanted to come right back,” Holman said. “Unfortunately, we let them get runs and it came back to bite us in the end.”
After a pretty strong first two sets offensively for both teams, neither team was able to find an offensive flow in the third, as both teams finished with 11 kills each, with the Tigers hitting .028 to Kentucky’s .079. Of LSU’s 11 kills in the set, 10 came from just four players with Lindelow and Holman having three, with Eugene and Mahaffey having two.
All three ties in the frame came in the first 12 points, as Kentucky scored six of the next seven to take a 12-7 lead and have LSU call its first timeout of the exchange. LSU fell behind further as the team was only able to muster four points with UK getting seven to trail 19-11 heading into another team timeout. From there, the Tigers were able to make it close, outscoring the visitors 7-3 and backed by a three-point swing to force a Kentucky timeout with the Tigers rolling and the score 23-19. LSU would get another point, but that would be it as Kentucky captured the last two points to make it 25-20 UK and go up 2-1.
Looking to turn the tide and push the match to a fifth, the Tigers would be unable to keep pace with Kentucky on the attack, hitting below .100 for the second consecutive set, while UK had just five errors among 15 kills in a .250 clip. Four kills was the most for any Tiger in the set, that coming from Leak, as the team only converted on 10-of-24 sideout chances during the set.
With the set tied at 10-10, Kentucky went on to capture seven of the next 10 points to go up 17-13, eventually pushing that lead to 22-15 before LSU had to call its final timeout to try and put a stop to the Wildcat surge. The team regrouped, getting kills from Leak and Eugene, as those would be the final two points of the match for the Tigers as Kentucky pulled out the fourth 25-17 to close the match.
“Unforced errors were way too plentiful and we have to control that,” Flory said. “I’m trying to get the team to play aggressively and finish plays, but it’s a double-edged sword where I want the team to be aggressive and finish plays and go for it, but when you do that you go a little too far and make that error. Or you back down a bit and you aren’t aggressive enough, and we have to do a better job of finding that balance.”
LSU will be back in action on Sunday, traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed online on SEC Network + on WatchESPN.
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