BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU volleyball team extended its winning streak to eight consecutive matches as the Tigers rallied from dropping the first set to take the next three in defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-21) Friday night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Powered by three players finishing with double-digit kills and hitting .299, the Tigers (13-7, 8-3 Southeastern) finished with 23 more kills than the Gamecocks (15-8, 5-5), who had their two-match winning streak snapped in the process. South Carolina hit just .228 against LSU, while having 30 less total attempts in the entirety of the match.
“The neatest thing about this match was that we didn’t score the way that we usually score,” head coach Fran Flory said. “After the second set, our team didn’t think they were playing very well. They were hitting .519, and that’s pretty impressive. They didn’t have their normal flow. We were successful in a different type of game, and we haven’t been able to do that.”
LSU was led by Briana Holman and her game-high 21 kills and .300 average to go along with two digs and four blocks, having one more kill than both of South Carolina’s top kill producers combined. After starting a bit sluggish, the sophomore had seven kills in the third set alone, earning five or more in a single set in three of the four on the night.
“South Carolina is a really good defensive team and has always been one,” Holman said. “I couldn’t allow myself to get frustrated and had to keep swinging, throwing in some tips and rolls to knock them off.”
Coming off the bench for another solid outing was Gina Tillis, who finished the night with 17 kills on a .406 average, while earning five digs, a service aces, an assist and a block. Cati Leak hit .368 and had 10 kills with a service ace, assist and a block and six digs for the Tigers.
Malorie Pardo earned her third 50-plus assist match of the season on Friday, serving up 52 while also powering home six kills on a .545 average with four digs and a block against the Gamecocks. Haley Smith tied for the match high with 16 digs, followed by Katie Lindelow who nearly earned a double-double by finishing with 15 digs and nine kills, while drilling three service aces.
KoKo Atoa-Williams and Taylr McNeil each finished with 10 kills for South Carolina, while Allie Monserez had 20 assists. Mikael Christiaansen had 16 digs for the Gamecocks, while Katlyn McDaniel led all players with six kills, as South Carolina earned 10 as a team to LSU’s six.
The Tigers struggled to get anything going in the first set and it showed as the team hit .196 while the Gamecocks came out gangbusters by hitting .306 and committing just three attack errors. South Carolina broke a 6-all tie and scored five consecutive points to go up 13-6 to force an LSU timeout. Leading 23-19, LSU made things interesting getting kills by Pardo and Tillis to pull within one, but never being able to get over the hump falling 25-23.
After getting shocked back to life after the first, LSU wasted little time reverting back to its dominant ways by hitting .519 in the second, getting 15 kills to just one attack error never trailing and eventually pulling away big after getting six kills from Tillis in the frame.
There were just five ties in the set, but the lead never changed hands as LSU broke the 5-5 knotted set and began to methodically pull away from the Gamecocks. Leading 17-13, the two sides split the next four points to put the Tigers up 19-15 to force a South Carolina timeout. LSU eventually extended the lead to 22-18 to force the visitors’ final timeout, scoring two more points with LSU taking the set 25-20.
“We had to hit better shots where they weren’t because we were hitting it right where their defense was, and they were digging it right up,” Tillis said. “When we started hitting our shots, everything went well.”
LSU didn’t need such a strong offensive effort in the third, but proved to be just as strong hitting .333 with 19 kills, the most in any set on the night, as Holman’s seven kills highlighted the first set out of the intermission break. The Tigers garnered seven of the first nine points to go up 7-2, with that being just the start as eventually the lead turned into 17-9 to force South Carolina into using both of their timeouts early. The Tigers led by as many as ten at different points in the set, eventually going up 2-1 with a 25-15 set victory.
Looking to clinch the match, the Gamecocks refused to go quietly, forcing seven ties and three lead changes in the fourth. After falling behind by two points at 10-8, the Tigers went on a big 6-0 run to go on top 14-10 and force a Gamecock timeout. South Carolina scored just four more points from that juncture, watching as the Tigers were five points from the match at 20-14, before turning on the jets to outscore LSU 7-3 to make it 23-21 heading into an LSU timeout.
Needing just two points, the team got them pretty swiftly with a Lindelow kill to make it 24 and an unassisted dagger from Holman to end it to send the Tigers to victory.
“We had to be tenacious. We had to be ahead of the play,” Flory said. “We had a nice game plan put together, and it ended up putting us in the right spot.”
LSU will be back in action on Sunday, traveling to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks at 1:30 p.m. in Fayetteville. The match will be streamed live on SEC Network+.
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