COLLEGE STATION, Texas – In arguably the most thrilling match of the 2014 season, the LSU volleyball team hit .305 as a group with four players finishing with double-digit kills as the Tigers defeated the Texas A&M Aggies in five sets, 20-25, 25-16, 25-9, 22-25, 15-13 Thursday night in Reed Arena in College Station.
Powered by 67 total kills and 79 digs, the Tigers (15-7, 10-3 Southeastern) extended its season-long winning streak to 10 as Texas A&M (15-8, 7-5) hit .192 on the night with 25 errors as a squad in being held below .200 in four of the five sets in the contest. The Aggies were unable to hold the Tiger offense down for long, as the team hit .300 or better in three of the five, including hitting .591 in the third.
“I think overall we played a nice match, we kind of went on a bit of a rollercoaster during sets, but I’m proud of our team for making it through and being resilient,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Credit Texas A&M because they have a wealth of great players and did some really good things against us, but I’m certainly happy that we ended up with the win.”
Leading the charge was Briana Holman who led all players with 18 kills and a .444 average with two blocks, followed by Mimi Eugene earning the first double-double of her career with 15 kills and 13 digs, to go along with four assists and a service ace. Cati Leak and Gina Tillis each chipped in 10 for LSU in the win, with Emily Ehrle adding five.
“Bri had her usual match, and she gave us a lot of great energy tonight, and I really think Mimi played about as efficiently as you could ask for,” Flory said. “Gina terminating shots off the bench was also big for us, as we really seemed to have that across the board tonight.”
Malorie Pardo finished an assist shy of earning her third-straight match with 50 assists, earning 49 with seven kills and a .545 average, capturing a double-double with season-high 19 digs, three blocks and two aces. Haley Smith led a quartet of Tigers with double figure digs, earning a match high 22, as along with Pardo’s 19, was followed by Eugene’s 13 and Katie Lindelow‘s 10.
“Malorie managed a really nice match and played great defense,” Flory said. “Haley was a lifesaver on numerous plays and that really set the tone when we finish with as many digs as we did tonight.”
Jazzmin Babers led Texas A&M with 13 kills and hit .323, while Shelby Sullivan finished with 11. Stephanie Aiple had 43 assists for the Aggies, while Amy Nettles had 21 digs.
Offense came at a premium in the first set of the match, with neither team hitting above .200 as the Aggies had the advantage hitting .195 to LSU .111. Although finishing with one less kill than Texas A&M, the Tigers had two more attack errors, with one more service error as three kills and two aces from Leak, with three from Tillis off the bench wouldn’t be enough for the team in the frame.
LSU scored four of the first five points to go up 4-1, but Texas A&M quickly rallied to pull within one by earning the next three to tie the match at 4-4 before a service error put LSU back on top 5-4. What followed proved to be one of the more crucial aspects of the first as the sides traded the next four points, before TAMU broke a 6-6 tie by scoring the next four consecutively to take a 10-6 lead and force an LSU timeout.
Leading by as many as six points, LSU pulled within three points after two Aggie errors and a Tillis kill to force a TAMU timeout. The break worked as the Aggies went back up by as many as seven by the end of the set, but the Tigers made it respectable getting a kill from Holman and back-to-back service aces by Leak to pull within four at 24-20, but that would be it as a kill by Texas A&M ended the first set 25-20.
The difference a set makes proved to shift the momentum the Tigers’ way in the second, as the squad hit a nuclear .455 with 12 kills to just two errors while Texas A&M struggled hitting .111 with just 10 kills. Holman had five of the 12, with Eugene being the only other player with more than one with two.
Down 4-2 early in the set would be the last time and the largest deficit LSU would see for the rest of the set as the Tigers got the next three on a kill from Pardo and Tillis and TAMU attack error to make it 5-4. After the Aggies made it all square at five, the Tigers turned on the jets and roared past Texas A&M in a big way beginning with a 6-1 run that eventually led to an 11-point advantage for the visitors that they never relinquished in a 25-16 victory to tie the match at 1-1.
With the match up in the air at that point, the third would have a big hand in determining the rest of the match, as the Tigers gave up the first point trailing 1-0 and not doing so again after outscoring Texas A&M 7-2 to go up 7-3 and force an Aggie timeout early. That lead only grew as the Tigers poured it on leading 15-7 to force TAMU’s final timeout of the set, going up by as much as 14 up 22-8 before eventually winning 25-9 to go up 2-1.
Although giving up the opening point of the set again, LSU once again jutted out to another solid lead going up 7-3 after a Kelly Quinn service ace. This time, the Aggies were prepared and slowly began to chip away at the Tiger lead, as they turned a 12-10 deficit into a 14-12 lead using a 4-0 swing to force an LSU timeout. After falling behind by two, the Tigers got kills from Holman and Leak to knot the set at 15-15, setting off a point-for-point affair the rest of the set.
At 20-20, a Texas A&M kill and LSU attack error put the Aggies up two, and that proved to be enough for the home side to hold on to the lead and take the fourth 25-22 to push it to a deciding fifth.
Like clockwork, the Aggies took the first point, but not before LSU had a chance to respond as the Tigers scored the next five to go up 5-1 and force a TAMU timeout. By the time the Aggies used their final timeout of the match, LSU had gone up 10-4 after another run put the team up big. But again the Aggies refused to go down on their home court without a fight, inching closer and closer to the Tigers for much of the final few points of the set.
Up 13-7, Texas A&M pulled within two at 13-11 to get the crowd back into the match. An attack error put the Tigers on the brink with match point, but the next two went to Texas A&M to pull within one and looking to take the lead, but an attack that went long sailed out and capped the night with LSU up 15-13 and the win.
LSU will be back in action next Friday, hosting Tennessee at 7:30 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on SEC Network+.
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