KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The LSU volleyball team fell in straight-sets to the Tennessee Volunteers 25-17, 25-18, 26-24 Friday night inside Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
The Tigers (9-12, 5-5 Southeastern) were held to a .114 hitting clip in the match with 35 kills, while Tennessee (20-6, 6-5) ended the night with 42 kills and only 16 errors, hitting .213.
Gina Tillis and Cati Leak each finished with 11 kills to lead LSU and tie for the match high, with Leak hitting .222 and earning a double-double, her 11th of the season, with 11 digs and a block. Tillis nearly earned one as well, finishing with nine digs and two blocks.
Cheyenne Wood led the setters with 15 assists, earning her seventh double-double with 10 digs. Lindsay Flory had 14 assists, with two blocks and a dig.
Haley Smith led LSU with 15 digs, also tying for the match high, serving up two assists, while Emily Ehrle had two blocks and three kills.
Kendra Turner had 11 kills for Tennessee, followed by Kanisha Jimenez who had 10. UT’s Lexi Dempsey had a double-double with 31 assists and 10 digs for the Vols, as Bridgette Villano had 15 digs, with two assists and a service ace.
LSU opened the match playing well offensively, but as the set wore on the Vols proved to be the team firing on all cylinders, outhitting the Tigers by the end of the set .324-.114, with UT having 14 kills to just two errors, with 12 kills and seven kills for LSU. Leak had five of LSU’s 12 kills in the frame, hitting .333 with five digs as well.
The Tigers opened the match earning four of the first five points of the match, but LSU’s leads would prove short as Tennessee came back to tie the match at 4-4, as after a UT service error, scored three-straight to take a 7-5 lead. LSU regrouped, scoring four of the next five points to tie the set at eight, getting a kill from Eugene to go up 9-8.
The LSU offense stalled allowing the Volunteers to score four right after to take a 12-9 advantage with the media timeout coming up, but never being comfortable with LSU knotting the set at 13-13 after a kill from Tillis just a few points later. Unfortunately for LSU, that 13-point mark stalled the team’s momentum as Tennessee went on to close the set going on a 12-4 run to put the match away and take a 1-0 lead over LSU, winning the set 25-17.
Tennessee was just as strong in the second, proving troublesome for LSU defensively as the Vols hit .265 with 14 kills, while LSU finished with a sub-.100 hitting clip in the set with 10. By the time LSU was able to corral some points late, getting four kills each from Tillis and Eugene, UT had a sizeable enough lead to hold off the Tigers late.
LSU again jumped out to another lead to open a set, going up 5-3. The Tigers led by three going up 7-4 after a kill from Leak and a Tennessee attack error. However, the Vols stole each of the next five points to go up 9-7. From there, Tennessee would go on to lead by as many as eight points at 20-12, in all using a 16-5 run to get into control, holding off a late offensive run by LSU to pull within five before eventually taking the second set 25-18 to take a 2-0 lead into the match.
By the final set, LSU started with the upper-hand, taking a big early lead and hitting the best it had in any previous set on the night, but in the end Tennessee’s resolve couldn’t be matched as the Vols finished with a lower hitting percentage in the third, but had 14 kills to LSU’s 13, as the Tigers hit .149 in the final frame, paced by Leaks second set this evening with five kills.
After trading each of the first few points of the third, the Tigers were able to break a 3-all tie by scoring three consecutive points to go up 6-3 after a service ace from Tillis. LSU made it 9-4 forcing Tennessee into using its first timeout of the match.
LSU led by as many as seven, going up 17-10 after a kill from Leak with LSU seemingly starting to take control. Tennessee cut LSU’s lead to four at 17-13, forcing a Tiger timeout. Although UT would find a way to threaten, LSU weathered going up four again at 20-16.
However, Tennessee began its comeback by slowly chipping away at the LSU lead, going on a 6-3 run to pull within one at 23-22. LSU got to match point after a UT attack error, but that would be the final point for the team in the match as Tennessee scored the final three to earn the sweep with a 26-24 win in the third.
LSU will be back in action on Sunday afternoon, traveling to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at 12:30 p.m. in Lexington.
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