by Matt Dunaway, Associate Sports Information Director
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sam Dabbs distributed 34 assists, tallied 12 digs and set the No. 19 LSU volleyball team to a .311 hitting percentage en route to an efficient 3-0 sweep [25-20, 25-16, 25-15] of South Carolina Sunday at the Volleyball Competition Facility.
LSU (22-5, 16-2 SEC) pushes its winning streak to seven matches and have emerged victorious in 15 of its last 16 outings. The Tigers also remained a half-match behind Kentucky, a 3-1 winner at Auburn, in the overall SEC standings.
The .311 hitting performance marked the 12th time that LSU has reached over a .300 clip this season. The Tigers also outblocked South Carolina (14-13, 5-12 SEC) by a healthy 9-2 margin and limited the Gamecocks to a .086 ratio.
“I’m proud of how we responded and our kids played extremely hard today to follow up the win at Florida,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We were shaky at times with our ball control but once again we showed great poise.”
Marina Skender cranked a match-high 10 kills and added nine digs, while Angela Bensend powered home nine kills on a .467 hitting percentage.
“Angela took some great swings and provided one of her best performances of the season,” Flory said. “We don’t avoid her, we just pick-and-choose when to use her on offense. She was on-fire, took some huge swings and also had a great finesse game to complement her power.”
Michele Williams recorded eight kills to go along with a match-best seven blocks. Williams has provided at least five blocks in 10 of her last 15 matches. Brittnee Cooper also popped six kills on a .545 clip for the Tigers.
Lauren Waclawczyk reeled in 16 digs and slapped two aces to anchor the back row. Lauren DeGirolamo posted another strong all-around performance with five kills, seven digs and three blocks.
“The Florida win would have meant nothing if we didn’t follow it up like we did today,” Waclawczyk said. “We played pretty good, but we know we still have some things to work on.”
South Carolina crept out to a 16-12 advantage in the first set as Olivia Ryder provided three kills for the Gamecocks. The Tigers regrouped with four quick points capped by a Williams-Bensend block and a Williams transition spike to even the tally at 16-16. After three ties and a pair of lead changes, LSU finished the frame with a 6-1 spurt to emerge with a 25-20 win. Dabbs fueled the run by setting Bensend, DeGirolamo and Williams to kills coupled with a Waclawczyk ace.
LSU continued its strong play into set two and at 11-9 broke the frame open with 12 of the next 14 points to surge ahead 21-11. The Gamecocks got back to six points on two occasions, the latest at 22-16. The Tigers charged back with three straight spikes from Williams, Bensend and Cooper, all from Dabbs, to close out the 25-16 victory.
LSU followed a similar script in the third set. After building an early 9-7 lead, the Tigers pulled together a 12-4 spurt to take a commanding 21-11 advantage. South Carolina sliced the deficit down to 22-15 before a pair of blocks, both involving Williams, put the finishing touches on the 25-15 triumph.
Ryder and Hannah Lawing paced the Gamecocks with eight and seven kills, respectively. Bridget Denson-Dorman tallied 14 assists and seven digs, while Sarah Cline corralled 12 digs for South Carolina.
“We have to be simple at certain times when other teams get on a run,” Flory said. “Sam did an excellent job of grasping that today and created better opportunities for her hitters instead of trying to be tricky.”
LSU returns home Friday to face off against Mississippi State. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. at the Maravich Center. Live video and live stats will be available on LSUsports.net. Fans also can follow in-match updates of the five-time SEC Western Division champions via www.twitter.com/lsuvolleyball.
