LSU volleyball defeated Mississippi State Thursday night in the PMAC in four sets with final scores of 25-21, 19-25, 25-28 and 25-11.
The Tigers improved to 2-2 on the season and sealed the series sweep of the Bulldogs, who fell to 0-4, after the Wednesday night win, also in four sets.
Senior Raigen Cianciulli, with two digs early in the first set, moved into second place on LSU’s all-time dig list. She finished the night with four digs, bringing her career total to 1,530.
The Tigers had two double-doubles, one courtesy of freshman Paige Flickinger and the other from sophomore Samarah Hill. Flikinger’s was the first of her career and featured 11 kills and 12 digs while Hill’s, also with 11 kills and 12 digs, was her third straight.
“It felt great,” Flikinger said following the game. “Coming back after tough games at A&M, I’m really glad we were able to rally together as a team and pull out this win.”
Jill Bohnet had a match-high 22 digs, Taylor Bannister finished with a match-high 22 kills and Karli Rose added 38 assists.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair. The story of the set, however, was Cianciulli moving into second place on LSU’s all-time dig list. The Tigers ultimately won the set 25-21 and took a 1-0 match lead.
The second set was dominated by the Bulldogs, as they got off to a 4-0 start and led by as much as 20-12. LSU rallied late in the match, going on an 11-4 run kickstarted by back-to-back Bannister aces to cut the deficit to 20-17. The Bulldogs were able to hang on to the set, scoring two easy points out of a timeout, silencing the home crowd, and going on to win 25-19 to tie the match at 1-1.
Set three was the complete opposite of set two. The Tigers got off to a hot start with a 7-1 run and never trailed on their way to a 25-18 win to go up 2-1. The fourth and final set was once again dominated by LSU, winning by an even greater margin of 25-11 to secure the 3-1 match victory.
“Well it’s great, you know, Mississippi State is always a really difficult team for us to play. They play great defense; their coaches do a great job. Today I thought our team responded really well to doing what we asked them to do,” Head Coach Fran Flory said.
“She’s just such a great volleyball player. She just understands the game and she makes the game look easy. She’s one of those kids who has great vision and can create and can hit any shot on the court at any pace. I thought she did a great job of picking them apart and crushing a couple balls,” Flory said when asked about Flickinger’s breakout game.
The Tigers will return to the PMAC to face off against Ole Miss Nov. 7 and 8 for their final home series of the season. Both matches are set to begin at 1 p.m.