Going into the weekend, the LSU volleyball team knew it had to defeat both Ole Miss and Mississippi State to keep any goal of winning the Southeastern Conference Western Division within reach.
“This is a vital weekend for us in the conference schedule,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory before the two matches. “It is of utmost importance that we defeat Ole Miss at home Friday and Mississippi State on Sunday if we are to remain competitive in our division.”
And to the credit of LSU, the team was able to do just that in rather dominating fashion.
The Tigers were perfect in two matches against the two conference foes from Mississippi, sweeping Ole Miss 3-0 Friday, before blanking the Bulldogs by the same result.
“At this point in the year, every win is key,” Flory said. “It was nice to win both matches this weekend and not lose a game, especially heading into next weekend when we host a pivotal match against Alabama.”
LSU (13-7, 5-4 SEC) remained within reach of frontrunner Arkansas (17-5, 8-2 SEC), who also swept Mississippi State and Ole Miss this weekend. The Tigers pulled one game closer to second place Alabama, (15-8, 6-3 SEC), who fell to Tennessee, Friday.
In Sunday’s match with the Bulldogs (10-14, 1-9 SEC), LSU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead with a 30-27 victory in game one. But the turning point of the match came in game two, when the Tigers fought off eight game points to defeat State, 32-30. After that, it was all LSU, as they pulled away from an 11-11 tie in game three to cinch it with a final score of 30-19.
Senior outside hitter Jennifer Hampton led the Tigers with 13 kills and ten digs, and sophomore outside hitter Kyra Lancon chipped in with ten kills as the only other Tiger to record double digit kills.
The win was LSU’s third consecutive victory and the loss marked the seventh straight for the Bulldogs.
In Friday night’s action against Ole Miss, the Tigers were led in their 3-0 victory by two young standouts that continue to play great volleyball.
Sophomore middle blocker Regan Hood recorded 19 kills on an impressive .484 hitting percentage.
Freshman middle blocker Cara Causey added 10 kills, while hitting a sizzling .643 clip, and also led the match with four block assists.
“I thought our middle blockers had an excellent match,” Flory said of Hood and Causey. “Regan and Cara were really outstanding for us and were probably the difference in the match.”
The Tigers will next play Friday when they face Auburn at the PMAC at 7 p.m. LSU also faces Alabama Sunday at 1:30 p.m.