Former LSU baseball coach and athletic director Skip Bertman spoke to the LSU volleyball team Friday to inspire the Tigers before their match against Alabama.Bertman’s words of wisdom appeared to work, as LSU beat Alabama, 3-1, on Friday and Mississippi State, 3-0, on Sunday at the PMAC.”He’s a great motivator,” LSU coach Fran Flory said. “He really did a great job of pointing us in the right direction and kind of putting it all together and in perspective.”LSU now leads the Southeastern Conference Western Division by 1 1/2 games over Ole Miss.The Tigers (14-9, 9-7) demolished the Bulldogs (6-20, 1-14), 25-4, in the third set, powered behind a 16-0 run after a 3-3 tie.Senior libero Elena Martinez said she hasn’t seen a set like that in her career.”If I have I don’t remember, so I’m assuming no,” Martinez said. “Everything that we’ve been working on all week kind of just came together in that third set.”The second set, which LSU won 25-23, was a different story.There were six ties and five lead changes in the second frame, compared to four ties and three lead changes in sets one and three.”We weren’t going at a fast pace,” Martinez said. “We were kind of allowing their tempo to set our tempo.”Flory said LSU didn’t respect Mississippi State in the first two sets.”They had several injuries,” Flory said. “Our kids kind of knew they were a little depleted … when you get that kind of news in pregame, you kind of let down a little bit.”LSU traded its first two sets with Alabama (13-11, 6-9), 25-12 and 16-25, on Friday.”The first set [Alabama] made a million errors, and the second set we made a million errors,” Flory said. “It was a giveaway and a giveaway by the team that lost.”LSU won set three and four with identical 25-14 scores.The Tigers only committed two errors in the final two frames — both in set four.”The pressure that we were able to get on them was the difference,” Flory said. “We had zero hitting errors in set three — I don’t know when we’ve done that. We always have one silly hitting error here or there.”Middle blockers Brittnee Cooper and Michele Williams paced the Tigers with 20 and 23 kills on the weekend.LSU’s .396 hitting percentage against Mississippi State was its highest since it hit a .410 clip against Arkansas on Oct. 5.”Michele and Britnee are so different,” Flory said. “Michele is smaller and faster, and Britnee is certainly fast but plays real high above the net. It’s awfully difficult for teams to get the right matchup against them.”LSU committed 17 errors on the weekend — its lowest weekend total this season.”Our serving took over,” Flory said. “We knew [Alabama] would have trouble handling short serves. We practiced this week doing that, and our kids executed that very well.”LSU plays Auburn on Friday at 7 p.m. in the PMAC.—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]