LSU Gold

Volleyball Sweeps Southern Miss

by Chelsey Chamberlain
Box Score +0
Volleyball Sweeps Southern Miss

BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball team claimed a straight-set sweep over Southern Miss on Friday evening in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center by scores of 25-15, 25-13, 25-14, 25-16. The Tigers are now 6-3 overall, while Southern Miss drops to 0-12.

Junior Taylor Bannister led the Tigers with 12 kills, while sophomore Whitney Foreman and freshman Allee Morris each added 11 kills. Freshman Karli Rose finished with 40 assists and 14 digs, her fourth double-double of season. Junior Raigen Cianciulli finished with a match-high 22 digs.

UP NEXT

– The Tigers continue their three-game home stand on Saturday, taking on Tulane at 2 p.m. CT inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The match will stream live on SEC Network+ and will be available via live stats.  

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • LSU got out to a fire lead, 5-1 and pushed to a 10-2 lead forcing Southern Miss to use both of their timeouts early. The Tigers continued to gain more momentum, taking an 18-9 lead after a 3-0 scoring run.
  • Southern Miss tried to work their way back, but LSU continued to run their system well, claiming the set 25-15. The Tigers hit .302 on the set with Samarah Hill leading the way with five kills.
  • The Tigers continued to force Southern Miss out of system in set two, taking a 8-4 lead. A kill by Allee Morris gave the Tigers a 12-6 lead. They continued to gain momentum, forcing Southern Miss to a timeout after a 15-7 lead.
  • A 3-1 run after a block by Whitney Foreman and Meredyth Howard gave the Tigers a 18-8 lead. The Tigers finished the set off with a kill by Taylor Bannister, claiming a 2-0 lead after a 25-13 set score.
  • The Tigers hit .417 in the second set with Hill and Foreman leading the way with four and five kills, respectively.
  • The Tigers started off the third set with a 5-0 lead. Southern Miss used its first timeout of the set as LSU took a 6-1 lead. The Golden Eagles tried to work their way back as they came within three, 8-5, but LSU continued to rally, taking a 12-5 lead into Southern Miss’ second timeout.
  • LSU took a 22-15 lead and allowed just one more point the rest of the set, finishing with a 3-1 run. The Tigers claimed the set 25-16 and took the match in three sets.

NOTABLES

  • The Tigers are now 34-9 in home openers, winning their second-straight. They own a 7-1 record over Southern miss after tonight’s victory.
  • Bannister is now 67 kills away from 1,000 in her career.
  • Fran Flory now has 484 wins in her career, just 16 away from reaching 500.

FLORY’S FINAL THOUGHTS

On playing in their first home game of the year…

Oh my gosh, we are so excited to be home.  We didn’t really even know how to function today.  We have seven new kids who don’t know how to do a pre-game at home, and we didn’t have the Purple and Gold scrimmage at home, so it made it an even bigger challenge.  They came in prepared, ready, and hungry to perform in front of a crowd on opening night.  We were super excited to be here and start defending our home court”.

 On having three players with double digit kill….

“The best part is that it wasn’t Samarah Hill who has carried a huge load for us.  We were able to sit her for a set and give her some rest and recovery for tomorrows match. The other good thing is that two of three were our middles so that means our ball control is good enough that we could set the middle and set the quick ball.  That allowed our offense to flow from inside out rather than being outside.  Credit Raigen (Cianciulli), Leigh (Maher), Milan (Stokes) and Samarah (Hill) when she was in there.  They handled the first contact really well and we’ve worked really hard on that this week.  I’m super proud of that progress.”

Volleyball Social Center
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