Before the LSU volleyball team began its four-match road trip Friday, LSU coach Fran Flory said her team needed to keep its intensity up for the entire weekend, and she got what she wanted.The Tigers (9-4, 3-1) swept Georgia (10-4, 1-2) on Sunday afternoon in Athens, Ga., behind the stellar play of senior outside hitter Marina Skender.Skender led the Tigers with 13 kills, marking the eighth-straight match Skender has recorded double-digit kills.”I was just trying to do my job,” Skender said. “Having a great team around me helps me play great.”The Tigers took the first set easily, 25-13. The second set was not the same cakewalk. The match went into extra points before LSU came out on top, 30-28. The final set was another close one, with LSU scraping out a 25-22 win to complete the sweep.”For as hard as our team was playing in the second and third sets, to walk away from this thing with a three-set loss is not devastating, but it certainly is disappointing,” said Georgia coach Joel McCartney following the match. “We deserved more than that today.”The Tigers finished the match with a .290 hitting percentage, 13 blocks, nine aces and 40 digs. The attendance at the Ramsey Student Center was 1,243, a season-high crowd for the Bulldogs.”I appreciated the support we had today in the match with a fantastic crowd,” McCartney said. “They could have sat on their hands after that 25-13 loss in the first set, but they actually fed some spirit into us, and I’m appreciative of that.”The victory for LSU was its seventh in the last eight matches against the Bulldogs.Flory said the matches this weekend helped the team “gel.””I think they decided they wanted to be a team again this weekend,” Flory said. “I felt like we were being a bunch of selfish individuals that were more concerned about success in terms of what it meant personally and not what it meant for the program. But we had a little talk, and they agreed and they made some very positive changes.”LSU got its road trip off to a positive start Friday night with a 3-0 sweep of Auburn (9-5, 1-2) in Auburn, Ala.Skender and senior middle blocker Brittnee Cooper combined for 28 of LSU’s 43 kills. Cooper finished the match with 15 and Skender tacked on another 13.Senior setter Sam Dabbs had a match-best 37 assists.”Sam set a great match and did an excellent job of managing the offense,” Flory said. “We worked hard all week in practice helping her to make the best decision and our hitting percentage tonight reflects that.”LSU’s hitting percentage against Auburn was .356. LSU extended its winning streak against Southeastern Conference Western division opponents to 21 matches and extended its streak against Auburn to 16 matches.But Flory said her team still has work to do, especially on offense.”Passing wise, we have to have the perfect tempo and location pass for our offense to be in-sync,” Flory said. “We need to be able to be more balanced despite the height, location and tempo of our first contact, and that’s something we’re going to get in the gym and try to correct this week.”The Tigers will continue their road trip next weekend with matches at SEC West rivals Alabama and Mississippi State.—-Contact Rob Landy at [email protected]