FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Playing statistically its worst match in a month, the LSU volleyball team refused to quit and fought through a 2-0 deficit to rally and defeat the Arkansas Razorbacks 3-2 (21-25, 19-25, 25-21-25-21, 15-9) Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville to extend the team’s winning streak to nine matches.
Fighting through sluggish play from all spots, the Tigers (14-8, 9-3 Southeastern) came on strong in the final three sets by limiting its unforced errors to hit .217 as a group while holding Arkansas (11-13, 5-6) to a .179 clip, well below its season average in the winning effort.
“It’s not our best performance, but I’m really proud of how they responded,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We fought through adversity getting here and we have kids playing through injury and they played themselves off of the wall. They refused to let another team dictate how they were going to play, and if they were going to lose it was because they were beaten and not because they gave up.”
The Tigers were led by Briana Holman who led all players with 23 kills and a .415 average to go along with six blocks and a digs in the win. Along with the sophomore, LSU got standout play from junior Cati Leak who had 11 kills and 11 digs for the double-double, while accumulating six blocks, three solo and three assisted with two aces. Katie Lindelow finished with 10 kills and eight digs.
Malorie Pardo strung together another big assist day, racking up 51 with seven digs, four blocks and two service aces. Haley Smith continued her ascent up the digs chart earning 20 on the night to lead all players in the match, while having two assists and an ace.
Meredith Hays led Arkansas with 18 kills, but hit just .089 in the match while also having 11 digs for the double-double, followed by Chanell Clark Bibbs’ 17 kills and seven blocks. Bailee Hankenson had 50 assists for the Razorbacks, while Monica Bollinger had 12 digs.
LSU started the match well, but by the end of the opening frame the Razorbacks hit better as a group and had fewer errors, hitting .333 on 13 kills, while the Tigers had one more put-away than the Razorbacks, hit into seven errors and finished with a .241 clip. Leak led the team with five kills in the set, followed by Holman with four.
The Tigers stormed out to a big lead early, going up by as many as three points after the first nine points. With a 9-7 advantage, the LSU offense stalled as Arkansas went on a three-point swing to tie the match at 10. After taking a single-point lead at 12-11, Arkansas scored the next five consecutively to go up 16-12 and change the match from that point on, holding off late LSU rallies to take the set 25-21.
Despite hitting just .108 in the second set, the Tigers gave up the first point to fall behind but wasted little time going on top and maintaining some sort of lead for much of the set. Holman powered home six for the Tigers, accounting for all but five of LSU’s 11 as a team in the frame, but only one of the team’s seven attacking errors.
LSU’s largest lead was four points, going up 9-5 to force an Arkansas timeout. However from there the Tigers would not be able to get any lead larger than two points, with Arkansas keeping it close throughout. Things fell apart for LSU after reaching the 19-point mark, as with another single-point advantage at 19-18, the Tiger offense once again found trouble and watched as the Razorbacks went on to close out the match on a 6-0 run to take the second 25-19.
The Tigers regrouped and finally had enough to overcome Arkansas in the third set, hitting .290 as a group with 14 kills and limiting the errors, while the Razorbacks hit just .111. Lindelow’s five kills and .500 average paced the squad, with Holman and Gina Tillis adding three each. Defensively the Tigers produced five blocks to aid in the effort.
For the first time all match, LSU took the first point of a set, not stopping there taking six of the first seven to go up 6-1. But like much of the match, the Tigers watched that lead evaporate as the Razorbacks outscored LSU 6-1 to knot the set at 7-7. From that point, each side traded brief leads, as two points seemed to be too great for Arkansas as they called both of their timeouts down two at 17-15 and 21-19, but even then it did little good as LSU went on to win the third 25-21.
Neither team hit well in the fourth, with LSU edging Arkansas .179-.135, but again LSU was the beneficiary of multiple Razorback errors to take the fourth, getting six kills from Holman amid the team’s 11 in another strong outing by the group.
With a renewed energy, LSU came out firing in the fourth earning the first point and 10 of the first 14 to take a big lead to open the stanza. Although the squad cooled off a bit, the team refused to get rattled by small Arkansas runs, including when the Razorbacks pulled within two points multiple times toward the end of the set at 20-18, pulling away in the end to knot the match at 2-2 with a 25-21 set victory.
The Tigers scored the first four points of the fifth in a big way, getting back-to-back kills from Holman and two service aces from Leak to force the Razorbacks into a timeout. LSU got to the eight-point mark first, leading 8-3 before switching sides and having Arkansas cut the lead to just three. However, a Lindelow kill and solo Leak block made it 10-5 sending Arkansas to its final timeout of the match.
By that point, LSU had seized the momentum and taken hold of the match, as Arkansas would only get as close as four points for the rest of the set as LSU closed the door getting the final two points it needed from a Leak kill and a Smith service ace to cap the comeback and send LSU to the win.
The Tigers will be back in action on Thursday, traveling to take on the Texas A&M Aggies at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.
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