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Tigers Sweep Arkansas to Open SEC Action

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Tigers Sweep Arkansas to Open SEC Action

BATON ROUGE – In front of over 1,600 Tiger fans, the LSU volleyball team swept the Arkansas Razorbacks in three-straight sets by scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-20 to open up SEC action Wednesday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The Tigers are now 7-4 on the year and 1-0 in the SEC, while the Razorbacks move to 6-7 on the season and 0-1 in the SEC.

Junior Taylor Bannister and senior Milan Stokes led the Tigers in kills. Bannister finished with 15, while Stokes recorded a season-high 13. Karli Rose recorded 37 assists on the night and Raigen Cianciulli tallied a match-high 12 digs.

UP NEXT

The Tigers will play at Mississippi State Sunday 29, at 1 p.m. in another SEC match up. This match will stream on SECN+, you can also follow the game via Live Stats and Twitter.  

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • The Tigers got out to a hot start against Arkansas with kills from Bannister and Stokes to make the score 3-0 TigersThe Razorbacks scored but the Tigers quickly answered with kills from Allee Morris and Bannister to make the score 6-4.
  • The Razorbacks evened the score at 8-8 but kills from Samarah Hill and Rose put the Tigers back in the lead 10-8. Samarah Hill added another point for the Tigers with a kill making the score 11-9 Tigers.
  • Stokes had three straight kills to help the Tigers increase their lead 18-13 and forced the Razorbacks to take their first timeout of the set. Stokes and Rose had two kills taking the Tiger score to 21-13, which resulted in Arkansas taking its final timeout of the set. Stokes added another kill followed by an ace from Emmaline Walters to keep the Tiger lead 24-14. Whitney Foreman had the final kill of the set, 25-14 Tigers. This put the Tigers on top 1-0 over the Razorbacks.
  • The Tigers hit .486 in the first set with Stokes leading the way with six kills. Bannister picked up four kills along with seven digs during the set.
  • The Tigers got out to a quick lead again in set two scoring five unanswered points taking the lead 5-0. Bannister added two quick kills making the score 7-3 Tigers. Whitney Foremen had a big block to keep the Razorbacks from scoring to take the Tiger lead to 8-6.
  • The Razorbacks evened the score at 13-13 but a kill by Bannister gave the lead back to LSU. Bannister recorded an ace to make the score 17-13 Tigers, this Tiger point resulted in the Razorbacks taking their first timeout of the set. Bannister had a kill which increased the lead to 21-15. LSU also recorded a kill from Morris to put the Tiger lead at 24-19. The Tigers closed out the set with a win 25-19 over the Razorbacks. This put the Tigers at a 2-0 lead in the match.
  • In the third set the Razorbacks came out swinging and took the early lead 4-1 over the Tigers. Stokes answered with a kill to add a point for the Tigers, 4-2 Razorbacks. Foreman had a block to keep the Razorbacks from increasing their lead and adding an LSU point to the board, 6-5 Razorbacks.
  • Bannister recorded a kill; it was the fourth unanswered point that put LSU in the lead over the Razorbacks 9-8. Morris recorded a kill from the middle which helped increase the LSU lead 12-11. Another kill from Morris put the Tiger lead 16-13, followed by a Stokes kill that added another point for the Tigers.
  • Stokes recorded a kill to increase the lead 19-14 that caused a Razorback timeout. Bannister had a big kill from the backrow, 21-14 Tigers. The Razorbacks battled back to get within five points of LSU, but the Tigers took the match 25-20 over the Razorbacks.

FRAN’S FINAL THOUGHTS

On the team’s performance against Arkansas…

“I thought we did a great job. The goal tonight was to kill balls and to control the first contact. We can be such a physically imposing team above the net. We’re big, we’re physical. We wanted to turn it into that type of match, and I think we did that. The second set we did not. Nine kills in the second set is not good enough, but I’m super proud of the 19 in the first and 18 in the third. We really need to reduce errors so there’s some improvements to be made. I’m proud of our effort, proud of our intensity, proud in the fact we never had a dip in our intensity or execution. We played well throughout the whole match and that’s new for us.”

On the fan support tonight…

“It was so fun. There were so many people and the greatest part is, you give the t-shirts away and some people left, but a lot of people stayed. Hopefully we created some volleyball fans out of the student body tonight. They were loud, they were involved. I have to mention the band, too. They were the key and they brought everybody. They had 80 members of the band tonight for us. We love that support, we support them, they support us. LSU is a family and that is a great example of it.”

NOTABLES 

  • Bannister is now 43 kills away from 1,000 in her career after adding 15 tonight.
  • Foreman recorded five blocks on the night. 
  • Announced attendance was 1,611. 

Volleyball Social Center

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 @lsuvolleyball on Instagram.