LSU’s volleyball team knew stealing a road game in its first weekend of Southeastern Conference play would be a huge victory.But it didn’t happen — the Tigers won only one set in two matches against South Carolina and Florida.”We just didn’t play like ourselves this weekend,” said junior middle blocker Lauren DeGirolamo.The Tigers traveled to Gainesville, Fla., for a Sunday match against the 17-time defending SEC champion Gators.LSU could not hold off the Gators as the Tigers lost the match, 3-1 (25-12, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19).The Gators got out to an early 7-0 lead in the opening frame and never looked back, gaining as much as a 14-point lead while finishing the set in a mere 20 minutes.”We have to start quickly,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “We have a tendency to sit back and wait and evaluate the other team. But that’s not acceptable.”In the third set, the Tigers got out to an early 8-2 lead before Florida called a timeout. The Gators came out of the timeout and tied the set at 9. The remainder of the set was back-and-forth and ended in favor of the Tigers.The Gators led the fourth set the entire way as they led by as many as 7 points.Sophomore setter Brittney Johnson had her best match of the year, dishing out 32 assists and adding on 8 digs.  “[Johnson] has been improving every practice,” Flory said. “We weren’t passing well, and [the coaching staff] felt she could do the best job at getting to the ball.”South Carolina swept the Tigers in their first match Friday night (25-14, 26-24, 25-19).Flory said the Tigers were simply outplayed in the match.”South Carolina did a great job of controlling the ball, and we were not very patient offensively,” Flory said in a news release. “We allowed ourselves to get frustrated and played right into what they wanted to do in terms of staying in the rally until we made an error.”Service woes plagued the Tigers throughout the match. They had nine service errors to South Carolina’s six.”We are capable of being a very aggressive serving team,” Flory said. “Our misses were because we were not driving the ball well. It’s just mental mistakes.”Flory was also upset with the Tigers’ play on the road. “I’m disappointed in our response to a rowdy crowd,” she said. “We didn’t play like the mature veteran team that we should be.”No Tiger recorded double-figure kills, but junior setter Samantha Dabbs had her third   double-double of the season with 12 digs and 28 assists.In the match, senior libero Elena Martinez recorded 10 digs, moving her into eighth place on the all-time career digs list at LSU.The Tigers resume SEC play this weekend against Tennessee and Kentucky, playing their first home matches of the season. Going into the matches, DeGirolamo said the Tigers have a few positives coming off the weekend sweep.”There were times in both matches when we saw what we could do,” she said. “We just have to play well more often to win these matches.”—-
Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]