by Matt Dunaway, Associate Sports Information Director
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 20 LSU volleyball team racked up 17 blocks, but it wasn’t enough as No. 7 Kentucky emerged with a 3-2 comeback victory [23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 15-25, 12-15] Saturday in-front of 1,341 fans inside Memorial Coliseum.
The win allowed Kentucky (20-2, 10-1 SEC) to grab a one-match lead over LSU (15-5, 9-2 SEC) in the overall SEC standings.
“Our team played well and it was a great match,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We fought extremely hard and played with great desire. We couldn’t finish in the end and I thought we played safe when the match was on the line. Kentucky played with a lot of confidence and made plays when they have the opportunity where we didn’t.”
The Wildcats jumped out to a 4-1 edge in the fifth set capped by a BriAnne Sauer ace. LSU charged back to 7-5 behind a trio of Brittnee Cooper kills before back-to-back spikes from Blaire Hiler put the Wildcats back ahead 9-5.
After a LSU timeout, the Tigers reeled off six of the next seven points aided by four straight tallies on Michele Williams’ serve. Cooper connected for two more kills during the run that ended with LSU holding an 11-10 edge. Kentucky responded with a 5-1 finishing kick capped by three consecutive kills, two from Sarah Mendoza, for the 15-12 victory.
Sarah Rumely passed out a match-best 56 assists and set the Wildcats to a .474 hitting clip in the deciding frame. Mendoza knocked a match-high 21 kills and totaled 12 digs. Hiler chipped in 13 kills and Sauer notched 21 digs for Kentucky.
Sam Dabbs countered with 46 assists and guided the Tigers to a .300 hitting clip in the fifth set. Marina Skender matched a season-high with 19 kills and added 10 digs for the Tigers to record her seventh double-double of the season. Cooper cranked 17 kills and recorded nine blocks, while Williams fired in 12 kills and tacked on five blocks of her own.
Lauren DeGirolamo anchored the defense en route to equaling a career-best with 16 digs to go along with her nine blocks highlighted by three solo stuffs. Lauren Waclawczyk also corralled 16 digs for LSU.
“Our first line of defense stepped up,” Flory said. “We knew that blocking was an important stat to have going into the match. I didn’t anticipate our passing breaking down. We became tentative and it’s too bad we weren’t aggressive forcing the ball to target. It’s unusual for our team and it cost us in the end.”
The two teams went back-and-forth in the opening set. After splitting the first 28 points of the frame, LSU used a 5-1 spurt capped by a Williams and DeGirolamo block to grab a 19-15 advantage. Kentucky fired back to 19-19 behind a pair of Gretchen Giesler blocks and Giesler spike. Two Tiger attack errors coupled with two Hiler kills allowed Kentucky to surge ahead 24-22. LSU fought off a pair of set points before a Mendoza spike gave the Wildcats a 25-23 win.
LSU regrouped to race out to a 10-4 lead in set two sparked by three blocks all involving DeGirolamo. The Wildcats crept back to 11-9 before Dabbs distributed four assists to three different players along with a Williams’ ace to push the Tigers up 18-12. Kentucky would get no closer than five points as LSU evened the match with a 25-19 victory.
The Tigers maintained their offensive rhythm and garnered a match-best 81 percent sideout efficiency in the third set. LSU has won all 27 sets when posting over a 70 percent sideout clip this season. At 13-11, LSU came away with 12 of final 17 points of the frame for a 25-16 triumph. Skender cranked 17 of her 19 kills through three sets.
“Marina mixed up shots up extremely well and Sam used her pretty good,” Flory said. “She served tough and played excellent defense to allow her to contribute an all-around solid performance.”
Kentucky turned up its defensive pressure and limited LSU to a .000 hitting percentage in set four. The Wildcats took a page out of LSU’s book from set three and used a 12-4 run en route to the 25-15 win. Rumely fueled Kentucky to 18 kills in the frame highlighted by five Hiler spikes.
LSU returns to action Monday at Tennessee. First serve against the Lady Vols is slated for 6 p.m. CT with live stats and video available on LSUsports.net. Fans also can follow in-match updates of the four-time defending SEC Western Division champions via www.twitter.com/lsuvolleyball.
