STORRS, Conn. – The LSU volleyball team continued to play at a top level on Saturday as the Tigers ran their season opening victory streak to six games with a 3-0 decision over Iona.
The Tigers for the second straight weekend caputred a tournament championship, winning the Dog Pound Classic title at Guyer Gym on the University of Connecticut campus by set scores of 25-17, 25-12 and 25-19 over the Gaels.
This marks just the third time since the start of the 2005 season that LSU has won back-to-back tournaments on the road to open a season (2005, 2010, 2017).
LSU defeated Hartford, 3-0, in its first tournament match on Friday and then scored a dramatic come-from-behind victory over host UConn Friday night, 3-2 and 15-10 in the fifth set.
Jacqui Armer, who had 17 kills and eight blocks over the three matches, was named the tournament MVP with setter Anna Zwiebel and Olivia Beyer also named from LSU to the all-tournament team.
FLORY’S FINAL COMMENTS
“I thought we didn’t start very well,” said LSU Coach Fran Flory. Our ball control wasn’t there in the beginning. Anna (Zwiebel) has just taken another step for us this weekend so proud of her for stepping up into more of a leadership role when that wasn’t rolling. But we played really well today and really balanced and we got every single person on the trip in and that’s always awesome for everyone.”
Third time since 2005 to start 6-0 on the road in tournaments – “We scheduled this on purpose. We knew South Florida would be a tough tournament to start out with and we knew UConn would be a tough place to play as you saw last night. We are excited about the start, but we are also excited about the evolution of this team and how we are building. We got better today even in a match in which we were challenged a whole lot, but we got better on our side of the net and that’s all good.”
Traveling to High Point and North Carolina – “(High Point has) beaten Oklahoma and Georgia this weekend. They are a team with a lot of international players. They are going to be really good volleyball players. North Carolina is a top 10, 15 program. It’s a challenge. Three matches in three days. The best part about this is we don’t play two matches in a day again. It’s one match a day. A little more like SEC style play during the season.”
The Recap
Set 1
The Tigers were actually down 5-2 in the first set of the match before tying the set at six and seven. Down 7-6, LSU ran off five straight points to take an 11-7 lead which forced an Iona timeout. The Gaels got it to one point, 14-13, but LSU ran off 11-4 to get off to a 1-0 lead. Gina Tillis had five first set kills and LSU hit .235 with four errors to eight for the Gaels.
Set 2
LSU was in control almost from the outset getting in control 10-5 and after a timeout at 13-6, scored five-of-the-next-seven points to go up 18-8 en route to the 25-12 decision. LSU hit .429 in the set (14-of-28, 2 errors, while Iona hit .062 (8-of-32, 6 errors). Taylor Bannister had five kills in the set (5-of-8).
Set 3
The set headed toward an LSU runaway as the Tigers built leads of 11-4, 13-5 and 15-8. But the Gaels had some fight and brought the set back to within two, 15-13, but LSU got the next three points and easily came home with their sixth straight win. LSU did have eight errors in the set and hit just .125 (13-of-40), but Iona hit negative in the set. Katie Kampen, Milan Stokes and Sydney Mukes all were able to get in the third set and record three kills each.
Game Notes
Zwiebel had 27 assists and eight digs as she continued to take some of the lead in running the LSU offense. Raigen Cianciulli had 11 digs for the Tigers.
Gina Tillis lead LSU with eight kills, most in the first two sets, as LSU had five players with four or more kills and the three others who had three in the final set.
LSU had six services aces, two by Tillis and three solo blocks (one by Beyer, Armer and Khourtni Fears).
Iona, a winner over Hartford in the tournament, drops to 2-4 on the season.
What’s Next?
LSU’s schedule doesn’t really get any easier next weekend as they travel on Friday night to High Point for a single match … High Point this weekend has already taken down Georgia and Oklahoma …Then LSU will go to Chapel Hill for a Saturday match with LIU-Brooklyn and a Sunday contest with North Carolina. That match will be televised on ACC Network Extra … LSU then goes to Baylor on Sept. 13 before finally returning to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the home opener against Houston on Sept. 16.
Volleyball Social Center
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