Volleyball Drops 3-2 Decision Versus South Carolina

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU held a 2-1 match lead against South Carolina Wednesday night, but the Gamecocks rallied back and defeated the Tigers 3-2 (26-24, 18-25, 25-23, 20-25, 9-15) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

LSU falls to 13-11 and 5-8 in the SEC, while South Carolina moves to 14-9 and 5-7 in the conference. The loss snaps LSU’s six-match winning streak versus South Carolina, giving the Gamecocks their first win in Baton Rouge since 2016.

The Tigers recorded 66 kills on a .201 hitting percentage, adding six blocks and two aces for 74 points. The Gamecocks finished with a .343 clip on 75 kills with nine blocks and three aces for 87 points.

Jurnee Robinson turned in her 11th double-double and eighth 20-kill double-double of the season with 21 kills and 16 digs. She also added two blocks. Angelina Lee landed 19 kills and hit a career-high .630 in the setback, adding two blocks, including one solo block. AC Froehlich rounded out LSU’s top point scorers with 11 kills and had six digs.

Bailey Ortega notched her fourth 50-plus assists match this season, distributing 55 helpers. She also had nine digs, two kills and a block to her stat line. Aly Kirkhoff concluded the match with 20 digs, marking her second match this season with 20 or more digs.  

Riley Whiteside led SC with 30 kills on a .364 hitting percentage and had 13 digs and five blocks. Campbell Paris added 15 kills and Tireh Smith chipped in 10. Both Paris and Smith registered .333 hitting percentages. Sarah Jordan had a night as she handed out 66 of SC’s 70 assists and contributed nine digs, four kills and a block.

Set 1

South Carolina built a 13-8 lead behind an 8-0 run, but LSU responded with a 10-3 run that gave the home team an 18-16 advantage highlighted by six unanswered points. The Gamecocks tied the set three times, including 24-24, but the Tigers did not relinquish their lead and ended the set with a 26-24 victory after Ortega and Lainee Pyles landed kills. Robinson recorded seven kills in the set to lead LSU.

Set 2

LSU went into the media timeout down 15-14 and took its first timeout trailing 20-17. The Gamecocks came out of the break and scored five of the final six points to win the set 25-18. SC outhit LSU in the stanza .444 to .059.

Set 3

It was a tight set early as the clubs recorded 12 ties and six lead changes with South Carolina holding a 15-14 edge at the media timeout. LSU rattled off a 4-1 run featuring an ace by Jessica Jones to take an 18-16 lead, forcing an SC timeout. After the Gamecocks scored the first point out of the pause, the Tigers landed four consecutive kills to increase its lead to 22-17. South Carolina used its final timeout to stop the run and put forward one final push, but LSU took the set 25-23. Robinson led with six kills, and Lee followed with five kills on six errorless swings (.833).  

Set 4

LSU called an early timeout as SC led 11-7, highlighted by a 5-0 run, and signaled for their final timeout, trailing 17-13. The Tigers trimmed the deficit to two points at 19-17 and were on a 3-0 run when the Gamecocks called a timeout after kills from Ortega and Froehlich. From there, South Carolina closed the set by scoring six of the last nine points, including the final three to win the set 25-20.

Set 5

LSU led 6-4 early in the frame, but South Carolina took an 8-6 lead as part of a 7-0 run that put the visiting team ahead 10-6 when LSU called a timeout. However, SC continued to pull away, as an overall 10-3 run propelled the visiting club to a 15-9 match-winning set.

Up Next

Senior Day will be at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday, Nov. 17 against Arkansas and will be televised on SEC Network.

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