LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory said earlier in the season that her young team would take some knocks and give some too. Although LSU (3-6) did not come away with a victory this weekend at the Wildcat Classic in Manhattan, Kan., the Tigers did take the third game against nationally recognized Colorado State (30-21, 30-23, 27-30, 30-13) and the first game against the defending Conference USA champions South Florida (27-30, 30-25, 30-23, 30-26).
LSU dropped three straight to No. 12 Kansas State (30-15, 30-14, 30-14).
The Tigers knew they would have several obstacles to overcome this weekend upon losing a couple key players, such as sophomore starter Megan Heinz, to injuries. However, they did not know they would have another adversity on the way to Kansas. The eight hour trip turned into 26 hours when the team was delayed overnight in Dallas due to weather.
The Tigers finally made it to the Bramlage Coliseum on Friday and took their first loss against Colorado State.
Freshmen Kassi Mikulik and Christie Ruttley took the court for the Tigers. Mikulik added 10 kills for LSU while Ruttley, in her first collegiate appearance, led the team in digs with seven. Freshman Lauren Leaumont also had 10 kills with six digs.
“I’m proud of the way we fought [Friday] ,” said Flory. “I thought we made some good progress. Kassi (Mikulik) and Lauren (Leaumont) did a nice job at executing the things that we have been working on and asking them to do. Regan (Hood) improved today and is a great leader for this team. She proved that she can play with the big dogs and hold her own.”
Hood led the match with 20 kills.
The Tigers took on Kansas State on Saturday and were out matched by the 9-2 Wildcats from the beginning as Kansas State started eight upperclassmen while LSU started three juniors and five freshmen.
Hood had nine kills against Kansas State while Mikulik had eight. Mikulik led the team with five digs while junior Rachel Pittman had four.
In the second match Saturday against South Florida, Hood once again led the Tigers with a career-high 24 kills. She also had three blocks and seven digs against the defending conference champs. Leaumont had a career-high 21 kills and a team-best 13 digs while junior Beth Cowley recorded a career-high 51 assists and two blocks.
Freshman Melody Clark led the Tigers with five blocks while Mikulik had 12 digs. But it was not enough to overcome the Bulls and the Tigers fell in four games.
“I think we just ran out of gas at the end,” said Flory. “We did a poor job of executing. We earned some great opportunities, but we just didn’t finish the plays. That is disappointing because that is something we have been working on.”