LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two impressive winning streaks will be put on the line Sunday afternoon as the LSU volleyball team will take its four-match winning streak into Lexington to take on the SEC’s undefeated Kentucky Wildcats in Memorial Coliseum at 12:30 p.m.
Sunday’s match will be televised on the league’s digital offering in SEC Network+, which can be viewed online on desktop computers and through WatchESPN for mobile phones, tablets and streaming devices.
Currently on its longest winning streak which now stands at four matches, the LSU volleyball team enters the weekend tilt against Kentucky at 9-7 overall and 4-3 in SEC play after earning its third consecutive sweep on Friday in defeating the Missouri Tigers in Columbia. Since losing their first three matches of the conference season, LSU has been on a tear as of late, winners of four of its last five and seven of the last 10.
“Sunday is a great opportunity for us, and that’s the way we’re approaching it,” head coach Fran Flory said. “It was good that we were able to get out of the Missouri in three, so we’ll look at recovering and getting comfortable in Memorial Coliseum.”
The team was able to accomplish a pretty solid list of feats in the defeat of Missouri on Friday, as LSU not only snapped a three-match losing skid to Mizzou since they joined the SEC, the Tigers snapped their 12-match SEC home winning streak which was the longest in the league and dated back to last season. It was also the first time since the 2010 year that LSU swept three consecutive conference opponents.
LSU put together another solid overall performance against Missouri, hitting .317 as a group, the squad’s third-straight match hitting above .300, while holding Missouri to a .218 average. LSU needed just 44 kills on 41 assists to cruise past Missouri in the win, while also getting 14 points on Missouri attack errors and nine points from service errors.
The defensive effort for the team didn’t stop there as LSU out-blocked its opponent for the third time in the last five 6.0-4.0, while also pulling in 47 digs to Missouri’s 43, the fourth time in the last five that the team has earned more digs than the opposition in matches.
“I think we channeled well in our blocking, but we didn’t terminate as much as I would have liked,” Flory said. “But I think our backcourt defense was outstanding, so our opportunity to control the ball has got to be there going forward.”
During this big run for the team, LSU is hitting at a .295 clip, averaging 14.36 kills per set, while opponents are averaging four less kills and is hitting just .177. The Tigers have been hard to stop offensively, as since the win against Arkansas the team has hit .300 or better in nine of the last 14 combined.
Leading the group offensively was Briana Holman, who tied for the match high with 12 kills, while hitting .611, the second consecutive match she’s hit .600 or better as she’s only earned one attack error during that span and has just two in her last three.
Although Holman was just one of two players in the entire match to finish with double-figure kills, the Tigers once again found their strength in numbers, as Katie Lindelow and Cati Leak finished with nine each, while Mimi Eugene had nine.
Senior Malorie Pardo earned the 50th double-double of her career in the win, serving up 30 assists with 11 digs. The League City, Texas, native is now an assist shy of 4,300 for her career, while she sits 13 digs shy of eclipsing 1,000 digs during her outstanding four-year career.
The defensive effort was led by Haley Smith who continues to sit in the top five in the league standings averaging 4.08 digs per set on the year, earning 13 as she has double-digit digging efforts in every match this year. She had help in that back row as along with her and Pardo’s double figure efforts, Lindelow provided nine and Eugene added six.
On Sunday the Tigers will be looking to split the season series against the Wildcats, but also snap one of the longest losing streaks in the league this year as Kentucky has won its last 11 matches and sits atop the league standings with a 17-2 overall record and 7-0 mark in the SEC. Kentucky swept its fourth consecutive league opponent with a 3-0 win over Georgia in Athens on Friday.
In the opening match of the conference season, LSU fell in four to Kentucky although the team had the chance to send the match to a fifth set, but that set loss for Kentucky is just one of six for the Wildcats all year against league competition.
“This is a venue in which we traditionally play pretty well,” Flory said. “We like this gym, and it’s one of the great volleyball arenas in the league. The two places we’re getting to play in this weekend are great venues, and we have a lot of respect for both of these programs so it should make for another exciting match on Sunday.”
Kentucky leads the all-time series 35-23, having won 11 of the last 14 matches against LSU dating back to 2007.
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger volleyball, visit www.lsusports.net/volleyball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsuvolleyball along with @lsuvolleyball and @lsucoachfran on Twitter and @lsuvb on Instagram.