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Volleyball Sweeps Oklahoma, Advances at NCAA'sVolleyball Sweeps Oklahoma, Advances at NCAA's

Volleyball Sweeps Oklahoma, Advances at NCAA's

Volleyball Sweeps Oklahoma, Advances at NCAA’s

EUGENE, Ore. – Behind another one of their trademark efficient efforts, the LSU volleyball team opened the 2014 Women’s Volleyball Championship with a convincing 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-22) first round win over the Oklahoma Sooners Thursday afternoon in Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

With the win, LSU (20-8) moves on to second round action on Friday afternoon, taking on No. 10 seed Oregon (22-9)  for the chance to move on to the NCAA Minneapolis Regional round next week. The Tigers have now won their opening round match in each of the past two seasons, earning their first tournament sweep of an opponent since the 2009 season.

“First I want to congratulate Oklahoma on a great year. They are a quality team and their coaching staff is a great staff, and when you get to the end it’s always difficult,” head coach Fran Flory said. “I’m super proud of our team. I thought our game plan worked to a “T” and though we did super well.”

Winners of 15 of their last 16 overall, LSU hit .248 as a team, led by Briana Holman‘s match-high 13 kills on .407 attack percentage and six blocks. Six different players earned at least a kill on the night, with four having at least eight. Katie Lindelow finished with nine and hit .381, while Cati Leak had eight on a .368 average.

“We’ve improved so much in every aspect of the game and I think this year we have a drive that we didn’t have last year,” Holman said. “We had it last year, but this year it’s much more.”

The Tiger defense stifled another high-hitting squad, holding Oklahoma (20-11) to a .119 average, hitting below .100 in two of the three sets in the frame. Haley Smith Had 19 kills to lead all players, followed by Gina Tillis who earned double-digit digs for the second consecutive outing with 11 while also adding eight kills. Five different players had at least seven digs on the night including Lindelow, Leak and Malorie Pardo, who also served up 32 of the team’s 39 assists on the night.

“We are happy that we are moving forward,” Flory said. “We know that we have a great challenge ahead of us tomorrow and we look forward to that.”

Marion Hazelwood led Oklahoma with 11 kills hitting .526, but had very little help outside of that, with Julia Doyle having 29 assists and Taylor Migliazzo having 12 digs. Oklahoma just had 36 kills while hitting into 22 errors, which includes LSU 10 total blocks on the evening.

With the set tied at 4-4 in the early points of the match, kills from Tillis and Lindelow help push the LSU lead to two points. After trading the next few points and leading by one at 7-6, the Tigers went on a roll going up 11- 6 to force OU into its first timeout. The Sooners would only score two points before needing to call its second timeout as LSU’s lead grew to 15-8.

Out of that last break the Tigers would get the first two points to go up 17-8, continuing to chip away going up eight points at 20-12. By that point, the Tigers had established its pace and had a large enough lead to pull away and take the opening set 25-14.

After falling behind early, trailing 3-1, the Tigers used a four-point swing to take its first lead of the second stanza at 4-3. The two sides traded the next two points to keep the match square at 5-5, but that would be the last point the Sooners would have for a while as the Tigers went on a 5-0 run to go up 10-5 and force an OU timeout. However, the Sooners never wavered, outscoring the Tigers 11-6 to pull within one point.

It would be tense from that point on, with the two sides trading points and keeping it close with LSU never holding a lead greater than two points for the duration of the set. Leading 22-21, a blocking error on OU gave the Tigers a three-point advantage, with a Sooner attack error putting LSU on the brink of the set victory. Oklahoma made the Tigers work for it, getting the next two points before a Lindelow kill ended the set 25-23 to put LSU up two sets to one.

The tight nature of the second set spilled over into the third, as the first 25 points between the two teams featured seven ties and four lead changes. With the set tied at 10-all, an OU kill was followed by a Holman kill to keep the set square at 11-11. What followed that point proved to be a big boost for the team as they scored the next three to go up 14-11 and force an Oklahoma timeout. The break did little good as the team scored the next three points out of the break to extend the run and the lead for the Tigers, before an OU kill got through a block to stop it.

LSU got to the 20-point mark rather quickly, but not before OU made a game of it late, pulling within one at 20-19 before a Tillis kill was able to stop the Sooner onslaught. The Sooners would pull within one two more times, with the final one coming at 22-21 as a Holman kill and Leak service ace pushed the lead to 24-21 and put the Tigers on the brink of the sweep. After a Sooner kill to make it 24-22, the Tigers put it away on its second attempt at match point on a Lindelow kill to end it and send LSU to the next round.

“We were trying to stay steady and we set the bar high and we were able to maintain that throughout the match,” Lindelow said.

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.