BATON ROUGE –The LSU volleyball team concluded its home tournament, the Tiger Classic, with a loss at the hands of Southern Miss 20-25, 25-22, 19-25, 26-28 Saturday afternoon at the Maravich Center.
With the win over the Tigers, USM finished the tournament with an unblemished record. LSU dropped to 2-4 on the season, while Southern Miss improved to 6-1.
Flory’s Thoughts
“I thought we fought well and hard today. I thought we did that against Virginia but we didn’t play with any poise or confidence. Our upperclassmen did not lead. We have a lot to overcome with our mentality and teaching. I’ve said it all along. We are a work in progress. We’ll have some weekends like this and then next weekend we may be on fire. The key is to find some stability.”
Who’s Next
LSU returns to action Sept. 9-10 in Orlando, Florida for the UCF Classic at the Venue. The tournament features Seattle, Florida Atlantic and the host team. LSU kicks off against Seattle at noon Friday and both the Seattle and FAU matches will be live on Cox Sports Television.
Opening Set
The Golden Eagles outhit the Tigers .225-.025 in the opening set of the day. LSU had just nine kills and committed eight errors Freshman Anna Zwiebel led the squad with nine assists and junior Gina Tillis had two aces. Southern Miss took hold of the opening set, never let the Tiger tie the game nor take a lead.
Second Set
LSU bounced back to hit .324 in the second set and committed just 2 errors. Setters Lindsay Flory and Zwiebel tied with a set-best four assists. Tillis led the tigers with four kills in the frame. The two teams went back and forth throughout the set. At one point LSU led by four points but the Golden Eagles fired back to tie it at 17, just one of 12 tie scores throughout the set. LSU used an attacking error and kills to close out the set and tie it at 1-1 before halftime.
Third Set
LSU returned from the break and dropped the third set 19-25. The Tigers combined to hit -.028 in the set with eight errors and just seven kills. Zwiebel finished the set with four assists and Tillis and Kelly Quinn combined to lead with four digs a piece.
Fourth Set
The Tigers returned to the court looking to move it to five but narrowly fell 26-28. The final frame featured two lead changes and 12 tie scores. Junior Khourtni Fears led the way for LSU in the frame with four kills. Flory also hit double-digit assists in the set with 10. The Tigers fought off three match points to tie the set at 24 all. After a kill by Toni Rodriguez to knot the set at 26 all, Southern Miss used a kill by Chanel Joyce and attacking error to finish the weekend undefeated.
Team Notes
>> Quinn made her second consecutive start at libero for the Tigers. She finished with 22 digs on the afternoon along with four assists and one ace.
>> Tillis, Fears and freshman Sydney Mukes led the squad with nine kills each over the course of the four frames. Fears also hit .412 over the day to lead the team.
>> Zwiebel finished the match with a team-best 17 assists on the day in three sets. She also added eight digs in the match.
>> Flory added 16 assists and two kills along with four digs.
>> The Tigers outblocked the Golden Eagles 10-9 on the day.
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