STARKVILLE, Miss. – Career nights for Briana Holman and Haley Smith would not be enough for the LSU volleyball team as the squad had their winning streak snapped at the hands of the Mississippi State Bulldogs in five sets (27-25, 22-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-9) Sunday afternoon in Starkville.
After sleepwalking through the first set, the Tigers (16-8, 11-4 Southeastern) would not be able to overcome the gritty and tough play of the home standing Bulldogs (7-22, 2-12) in the end, pushing it to five but falling and having one of the best winning streaks in recent history end at 11.
“Credit them for playing their type of match and keeping the ball in play and we didn’t respond well to that,” head coach Fran Flory said. “When you have changes in the lineup you have to have other people step up and we just didn’t have that tonight. We didn’t want it bad enough.”
Sophomore Briana Holman earned a career-high 25 digs and hit .512, while having eight blocks and three digs, while defensively Haley Smith had a career best 30 digs, as she became the 15th player in program history to eclipse 1,000 digs in a single career.
“You needed somebody to carry the load and Bri and Haley both did that in numerous ways today,” Flory. “Haley kept balls off the floor and Briana was awfully good. But outside of that, our offense wasn’t there and neither was our tempo. We’ll just have get back into practice this week and work these things out.”
Katie Lindelow earned a double-double with 14 kills and 18 digs, while Gina Tillis came off of the bench to power home 11. However as a team, LSU hit just .180 in the loss, being forced into 35 errors, while also having six service aces negated by nine service errors.
Malorie Pardo served up 57 assists for LSU, while also having five kills, three digs and three blocks, followed by Mimi Eugene who had seven kills and 10 digs and two service aces.
Mississippi State had four players finish with double-digit kills, Led by Alex Warren’s 12, as the Bulldogs hit .153 as a group with 52 kills. Shelby Anderton had 40 assists for the Bulldogs to go along with her 10 digs for the double-double, with Peyton Harris leading the way with 24 digs and four assists. MSU out-blocked the Tigers 10.0-8.0, as Bali Lefall-Young led Mississippi State with six.
The Tigers raced out to a nice lead early, earning the first four points of the set and five of the first seven to take a 5-2 lead. That lead grew to five going up 7-2, but the Bulldogs refused to go away quietly early, outscoring LSU 6-1 to tie the match for the first time at eight. MSU forced three more ties and took the lead at 11-10 for the first time in the match. The Bulldogs led by as many as three points up 13-10, but not before a four-point swing by the Tigers gave them the lead back.
Even with the lead back, the Tigers would be unable to hold on to it for too long, watching as a three-point, 18-15 lead, turned into another tie and eventual MSU lead with the Bulldogs eventually going back up 20-19. With the two sides dueling it out, the frame went to extra points, as LSU battled back to tie it at 25-25, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Bulldogs claimed the frame 27-25.
The wake-up call seemed to work early for the Tigers in the second, jutting out to another early lead up 7-4, but again the Bulldogs used its home floor to its advantage clawing their way back to tie the set at 10-10. Looking as if they were going to be able to hold onto the lead up 16-13, MSU rallied to tie the set going on a three-point swing to shift the momentum back its way. After trading points, MSU went up two, holding on to it before LSU came back to knot the set at 21-21 late.
After trading the next two points to keep it all square, a Pardo kill made it 23-22 LSU. A strike by Holman made it a two-point advantage for the Tigers, with a stuff by Holman and Pardo ending the set in favor of LSU 25-22 to tie the match at one set each.
Like much of the match, except earlier, the two teams fought through six ties and three lead changes throughout the first 28 points, but that proved to do little good as Mississippi State was leading 16-13 and LSU was once again looking to right the ship. Down two at 17-15, back-to-back kills by Lindelow tied the set at 17-17 as she started to find her stride, but the team couldn’t overcome as MSU got two back to go up 19-17 to force the Tigers into a timeout.
Coming out of the break looking to break serve, kills from Lindelow and Eugene tied the match at 19 to force an MSU timeout. That break hurt as a service ace by Lindelow made it 21-19 LSU, as it seemed as if the team would have enough to pull away, instead seeing the Bulldogs rally in a big way to tie the set at 23-23 heading into an LSU timeout. That rally was big for the home side as they closed the match getting the final two points it needed to go up 2-1 at 25-23.
LSU seemingly started to get some breaks in the fourth, racing out to an 8-2 lead with some solid all-around play, eventually extending that lead to 10-3 before Mississippi State finally had to call a timeout. Although it wasn’t without its share of some dramatics, the Tigers eventually pulled out to an 18-10 advantage to force the Bulldogs into their final timeout of the frame, but as before, LSU allowed MSU to make it close late pulling within two, before going on a 3-0 run to lead 23-18 and holding off another MSU rally to win 25-23.
The Tigers spotted the Bulldogs the first three points, and after clawing back, it was all MSU from there as they would hold off LSU points to go on to win 15-9.
LSU will close out the home portion of the schedule next weekend, beginning with the Missouri Tigers at 7 p.m. next Friday in Baton Rouge.
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