BATON ROUGE, La. – Coming off of a strong performance on Friday night, the LSU volleyball team will make a quick turnaround and travel to Fayetteville for a match with the Arkansas Razorbacks at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
After playing the last two matches at home, Sunday will be the first of two big tests on the road, as the Tigers will then go to College Station for key tilt against the Texas A&M Aggies on Thursday on the SEC Network who are currently ranked 23rd by the AVCA and 18th in the RPI.
LSU heads into Sunday’s match continuing to roll as the team improved to 13-7 on the season and 8-3 in the SEC by defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks in four sets to extend their season-long winning streak to eight matches. In earning the group’s fourth-straight win at home, the team tied one of the longest conference winning streaks since 2009 in the process, becoming the fifth team in program history to win eight or more league matches in a row.
“South Carolina is going to make us better because they made us hit better shots and were so disciplined defensively that we are going to, hopefully, be a little more precise offensively going into the weekend,” head coach Fran Flory said.
With eight wins in the books for October, LSU strung together one of its best months in the last few seasons, looking for that momentum to carry over into the stretch run that features seven matches in the race to the NCAA Tournament in early December.
The match against South Carolina proved to be an old hat for the Tigers as of late, hitting .299 as a group in another bruising attack collectively in sending the Gamecocks to their first loss in their last three, finishing with 30 more kills and attempts than the visitors had all night. LSU has been hard to beat when hitting that well, winning 10 times this season when hitting .250 or better in matches this season.
Earning her second match with 20-plus kills this year, sophomore Briana Holman hit .300 with four blocks, taking a career high 50 swings on Friday. The DeSoto, Texas, native has led the team in kills 14 times this season and in blocks 15 times, averaging nearly five points per set on the year.
Proving to be more than a one-hit wonder, freshman Gina Tillis came off the bench to register 17 kills and hit .406 for the Tigers, piecing together her sixth double figure kill match of the year, while hitting .300 or higher with 10 or more kills in three of the last four matches. Tillis wasn’t the only one finding their stride offensively, with Cati Leak having at least 10 kills for the 12th time and hitting .368 and Madi Mahaffey hitting .300 in only three sets of work.
It didn’t take long for Malorie Pardo to ascend into second place all-time in career assists for the Tigers, as the senior is wrapping up her career in style after dishing out 52, while hitting .545 with six kills and four digs. A mere two weeks ago, Pardo was averaging just over nine assists per set, coming on strong lately to now average 10.37.
On the back row, Haley Smith has helped lead the defense as her 16 digs tied for the match high on Friday night, as she now sits just 30 digs away from reaching 1,000 just three seasons in the Purple and Gold. Her 4.05 digs per set average on the year is the best since she started in 2012, as she looks to become just the second person since 2010 to average over four per set for the entire year.
Smith has been getting help from various places as well on the back line, as Katie Lindelow, who nearly captured a double-double against South Carolina, had 15 digs for her fifth double-digit dig effort on the year. In league play, Lindelow is averaging over two-and-a-half digs per set which is in the top 20 individually in the league.
Sunday will prove to be interesting in one way solely as LSU’s fortunes have been on the climb while Arkansas’ has seemingly gone downhill since the two teams met at the beginning of the month. The thrilling five-set win in Baton Rouge changed the fortunes of both sides, as LSU has ascended to the upper table of the league standings, while the Razorbacks have fallen to the mid-table.
After racing out to a 5-1 start in league play, Arkansas has dropped its last four, including a three-set sweep at the hands of Missouri in Columbia on Friday night to sit at 11-12 on the year and 5-5 in the SEC. However, Arkansas does hold an 8-4 record in matches in Fayetteville this season, as LSU will be looking to earn its first win in Barnhill Arena since 2010.
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.