The last time the LSU volleyball team won eight regular season games in a row, Shaq was posting up in the PMAC, David Duke was running for governor of Louisiana and the most primitive form of the World Wide Web was introduced.
The No. 18 Tigers swept their Southeastern Conference road weekend by defeating No. 13 Tennessee on Friday 3-2 and Kentucky on Sunday 3-1.
The wins extended LSU’s winning streak to eight, the team’s longest streak since 1991. The wins also improved the Tigers’ record this season to 10-1.
The victories were anything but easy for LSU. After falling behind two games to the Lady Vols, the Tigers roared back to win the match 26-30, 35-37, 30-20, 30-22 and 15-11, marking the first time the Tigers have overcome an 0-2 deficit to win a match since 2004.
Sophomore Marina Skender led the match with 22 kills. Sophomore Kyna Washington added 17, and SEC Freshman of the Week Lauren DeGirolamo had 16.
Senior Melody Clark had 12 kills and eight blocks, and senior Daniela Romero recorded a career-best 74 assists.
Coach Fran Flory said the campus-wide power outage that occurred Wednesday was a contributing factor in her team’s slow start against the Lady Vols.
“We chose to watch film first [on Wednesday],” she said. “We were on the court for about 45 minutes, and then the power went out.”
Flory said the match against Tennessee was the first time her starters were on the court together since the Tigers’ win over Indiana on Sept. 10.
She compared the atmosphere of the match with the Lady Vols to a championship boxing bout.
“It kind of felt like it was a prize fight, and we ended up having more kills and throwing more punches and going after them a little more aggressively than they came after us,” Flory said in a press conference after the game.
Following the nail-biter against Tennessee, LSU made the three-hour drive north to Lexington for a matchup Sunday against Kentucky.
After jumping out to a 5-1 lead, two wide hits by Washington and DeGirolamo gave the Wildcats a 10-9 lead.
The Tigers battled back after a service ace by Skender to lead 15-13. After seven ties, a double hit call on Kentucky gave LSU the advantage once again, but untimely mistakes cost the Tigers the game 29-31.
Coming into the match the Wildcats were 7-0 this season when winning game one of a match, but LSU showed resiliency by taking three straight games 30-19, 30-25 and 30-21. The win was the Tigers’ first in Lexington since 1999.
Flory said the team’s ability to overcome early deficits is a good thing.
“We’re very patient,” she said. “We wait to see how the other team is going to block us and defend us and what they’re gonna try to do to exploit what they feel our weaknesses are, and then we adapt to that. It’s nice to have a team that can handle that type of response.”
LSU stepped up its defense after the first game with 17 of the Tigers’ 18 blocks coming in games two, three and four.
Skender led the offensive attack against the Wildcats with 17 kills but also helped defensively with 17 digs.
DeGirolamo had her second-straight double-double with 14 kills and 10 blocks, and Romero recorded her 3,500th career assist in the match.
—–Contact Tyler Batiste at [email protected]