Last season, head coach Tonya Johnson took her Tiger team to Lexington and walked away with a 3-2 upset over then No. 15 Kentucky in LSU’s SEC road opener.
This time around, the story follows a similar line.
LSU began its SEC slate on Friday, Sept. 22, in Rupp Arena against the then No. 22 Kentucky. Both teams felt the tension in the gym: LSU wanted to stun the volleyball world for the second season in a row, and Kentucky needed a substantial win to keep itself in the national rankings.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, things didn’t go as planned.
Kentucky ended up taking the match in four, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-13. While taking a set off a top-25 opponent would’ve been good enough for any other program, Johnson expects and wants more out of her team.
“We’re just capable of so much more,” Johnson said. “From a confidence standpoint, [my players] have to believe that they can compete and win, but also we have to be going out and executing the things that we’ve been training to do.”
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LSU had control of the match in the beginning, winning in the first and taking the lead in the second, but Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner knows a thing or two about falling short early on. The Tigers are now 5-6 after going 0-1 in the first week of SEC play.
“We played well for two sets and [had some] spurts in the third set, [but Kentucky] got better as the match went on,” Johnson said. “I felt we had some opportunities and we just didn’t take care of the ball the way we needed to in order to beat a good team like [Kentucky].”
The Wildcats were without Reagan Rutherford when LSU showed up, but even in the absence of its most lethal weapon, other players held their own to contribute to the win. Kentucky was led by freshman outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye after a career night full of seven digs and 19 kills on a .444 hitting percentage.
Three other players shined in Kentucky’s win: Elise Goetzinger added 12 kills; Megan Wilson had 11 kills and a highlight-reel save that involved her jumping off the court and over the scorer’s table; and Azhani Tealer generated 10 kills. Tealer has transitioned to the middle blocker position in recent seasons, but she began her career on the pin for Kentucky. Her 10 kills tied for her season high.
Kentucky held LSU to a hitting percentage of .135 while hitting at a .336 clip of its own. The largest discrepancy in the two teams’ performances is highlighted in the kill and assist column. LSU had 40 kills with 35 assists to Kentucky’s 64 kills and 56 assists. Also, the only player on LSU’s squad with double-digit kills was freshman outside hitter Jurnee Robinson. Kentucky had four players with at least 10 kills.
The loss to Kentucky was a much-needed learning experience for the Tigers. Following the loss, Johnson gathered her team and put them right to work, focusing on the weaknesses Kentucky took advantage of.
“There are a couple of things that we’ve been working on,” Johnson said. “I think, you know, obviously we have to continue to improve on the defensive side of the ball. Our blocking is improving…so our second and third line of defense has gotten better. The one thing that we have to see and do more of is, you know, we have to be able to dig-to-transition and put a ball away. That’s got to be key for us in terms of point-scoring, and so we’ve been working on that a ton this week, and wanting to see some improvement there.”
The first week of SEC play was on the lighter side, having only played one match; this week, LSU hosts two opponents. On Friday, Sept. 29, Dawn Sullivan will bring her 9-4 Missouri team to Baton Rouge. The match will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is available for viewing on SEC Network+. Missouri is 1-1 in SEC competition.
Missouri holds a 13-6 record over LSU all-time, but in the teams’ last two meetings, LSU took home the win. The most recent meeting between the two ended in a five-set win for LSU on Missouri’s home court. The last time Missouri beat LSU was on Jan. 30, 2021, but the last time it defeated LSU in Baton Rouge was Oct. 2, 2020.
Jordan Iliff paints the headlines for Missouri this season after several stellar performances in the nonconference season. The junior racked up 21 kills in Missouri’s four-set win over South Carolina, only committing one error on 44 swings to generate a .455 hitting percentage.
“I think both [Missouri and Mississippi State] are very good teams,” Johnson said. “Dawn Sullivan, it’s her first year at Missouri. She came from UNLV and did a tremendous job there, and I think she’ll do a tremendous job of rebuilding Missouri and getting it where it needs to be and making [it] competitive.”
LSU’s final match of week two will start at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1. Mississippi State will come into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to face the Tigers in hopes of improving its 1-1 SEC record. Overall, the Bulldogs have an 8-4 record.
Mississippi State is 12-65 against LSU, but this record is no indication of what we’re about to see on Sunday. Head coach Julie Darty Dennis has praised her team for its defensive efforts this season and it could be enough to flip the script on LSU. In the last five matches, the Bulldogs lead LSU 3-2; the match will be full of fire from both programs and shouldn’t be missed.
Karli Schmidt transferred from Kansas University to use her fourth year of eligibility at Mississippi State, and her presence on the court is more than what the Bulldogs needed for a successful season. The senior leads the Bulldogs with 152 kills and has earned a total of 169 points for her team. Schmidt’s 3.45 kills per set and .256 hitting percentage have given her a solid spot in the starting lineup.
“Julie Darty (Dennis), I have the utmost respect for her in terms of what she’s done at Mississippi State. I’m an SEC girl, so I know where that program used to be, and I know where she’s gotten that program to, and I think she’s doing great things there. I have a great deal of respect for both [her and Sullivan].”
Despite Missouri and Mississippi being middle-of-the-pack teams when it comes to SEC opponents, Johnson knows better than to have low expectations of a program. She heads into this weekend expecting a battle from both teams.
“Our conference is a heck of a lot tougher than it was last year,” Johnson said. “We have some very good teams in our conference and you’re going to have to show up and play and scratch and claw to come out on the winning side of it because everybody’s good. You don’t get a night off in this conference, and I think that’s great. Top to bottom, our conference is good and you got to be at your best every single night.”
