BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU volleyball team returns to action inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sunday for the final time in the 2014 season as the Tigers host Auburn at 1 p.m. in Baton Rouge with a live stream provided by SEC Network+.
Sunday’s final home match of the year is free to the public and is Fan Appreciation Day, where fans will be able to participate in a raffle drawing with winners announced periodically throughout the match against the Tigers. Also that day the 2015 LSU sand volleyball team will be introduced to the public, as the squad will embark on its second season beginning in the spring.
For the first time in a while the Tigers went into Friday’s match on Senior Night hoping to avoid another letdown as they did a week ago, putting those worries to rest early as LSU blitzed past Missouri in four sets to earn the season sweep of Missouri in the process. The win improved LSU’s overall record to 17-8 on the year and 12-4 in the Southeastern Conference, giving the team another shot at possibly being selected for the NCAA Tournament next week.
“I think we go out every game and we play with passion,” junior libero Haley Smith said. “We try to make this year a great one for our seniors and for the whole team. We always try to make it a special year. I think even though Friday was really an emotional night, I think we just carry on like we’ve been doing for the rest of the season.”
Before jumping into league play, the Tigers had one of the highest opponent attack percentages in the conference which hovered at around .220. Since then the Purple and Gold have really clamped down on the opposition’s flow offensively, as Missouri was the latest victim to be held to not only a sub-.200 hitting clip, but a sub-.100 attack percentage with a .096 night. LSU and Florida are the only two teams that can lay claim to holding SEC competition to hitting below .200 on the season, with LSU holding teams to a .187 percentage and Florida with a .136 average.
It also didn’t help that Missouri hit into 13 total team LSU blocks, with the Tigers digging up 73 shots on the night as well. Five different LSU players finished with double-digit digs, the first time that has happened all season, led by Smith’s 18, also culminating in a lot of double-double efforts on the night when tacked on to the offensive production.
“We didn’t have a very good rhythm at the beginning of the match, kind of fought ourselves a little bit, and did an okay job,” head coach Fran Flory said. “They were really frustrating our kids, but we really adjusted. I thought Emily Ehrle and Briana Holman did a nice job, throughout the match, kind of staying the course and being patient and allowing themselves it learn how to do this.”
On the other side of the ball, the team continued to swing away and do it convincingly as Holman, Katie Lindelow and Mimi Eugene all finished with double figure kills, with Malorie Pardo serving up 41 assists as well. Pardo, Lindelow and Eugene each earned double-doubles on the night, while Cati Leak had eight kills and 11 digs in a return to action for the junior.
Holman had one of her typical nights in leading all players with 15 kills while hitting at an above .300 clip, the sophomore is six digs shy of matching her entire kill output from last season at 391, and doing so in six less matches by the end of Sunday, as she could be the first player since All-American Brittnee Cooper in 2009 to earn 400 kills in a season.
Pardo is serving up 10.35 assists per set on the season, but the senior has been able to pick up her play on the kills end with 84 on the year which is the most for her during her career, as she is hitting .348 which is also a personal best at LSU.
After cracking the 1,000-dig mark last Sunday, now the goal for Smith is to see how close she can get to Daniela Reis’ record of 1,527 which was set from 1989-92 with two more regular season matches to go and possible tournament berth and entire senior season left to play. She is averaging 4.45 per set in conference matches alone, which is currently second in the SEC heading into the final matches of the year.
With every match being seen as a one-game season from here on out, Auburn at 12-16 and 4-11 in the league will have the Tigers’ full attention on Sunday, regardless of record or placing in the conference statistics. Especially as Auburn has taken the last two against LSU in the recent series history after the Tigers dominated the rivalry winning 22 consecutive matches in a row before faltering in the last two.
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.