Looking to rebuild their winning streak this Sunday, LSU volleyball had a lot to prove as they took on the Texas A&M Aggies.
Errors played a large part in this nail-biting game, only this time they were in favor of the Tigers.
The Aggies entered the PMAC with a well-rounded set of stats, standing at No. 4 in the SEC overall. They also held No. 2 rankings in assists, opponent hitting percentages and kills, setting them as a team that was certainly a threat to LSU, who stood at No. 13 overall.
The Tigers, on the other hand, entered the match after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 3-1, where head Coach Tonya Johnson said she could feel the intestinal fortitude of the team after having to play come-from-behind volleyball.
“We didn’t let ourselves dig a hole in the last match or this match,” Johnson said.
Feeling confident, LSU dove into set one, which proved to be very tricky for the team as it found itself making errors on top of errors.
The Tigers gave A&M 13 points worth of errors, nine of them split evenly between freshmen middle blocker Jessica Jones and outside hitter Lainee Pyles, along with sophomore outside hitter Jurnee Robinson.
Robinson is all too familiar with errors recently, but she showed improvements in this match compared to how she performed against Oklahoma, where she had a total of 23 errors between attacks, serves, sets, returns, blocks and ball-handling. Against the Aggies, she only had 14 errors between these categories.
Her coaches have advised her to maintain the ball and to hone in on whether she’ll be able to complete an attack.
“If you realize you don’t have the swing, you don’t need to hit harder,” Robinson says her coaches have told her. “I don’t always have to slam every single ball down,” she said.
Despite how that mindset has helped her improve, Robinson’s service error at the end of set one cost the team the set and they fell before the Aggies, 25-18.
In previous games, when LSU makes an error, its confidence is shattered and it struggles to come back from its mistakes. However, that wasn’t the case today.
The Tigers gave a good fight in set two, where Robinson led the team with four kills while fifth-year senior right side hitter Jade Demps followed with three.
In fact, LSU only had three errors within set two, with two of them being before the first timeout, called by Texas A&M.
Lots of the Tigers’ points, though, were reliant on A&M’s errors. The Aggies had 12 total errors at the end of the set.
Johnson said as a natural part of rally score volleyball, LSU fed off their opponents’ errors, gearing them with confidence to close set two with a win, 25-14.
LSU kept that energy going as they ventured into set three, but the Aggies continued to challenge the Tigers. The two teams found themselves tied not once, not twice, but seven times – all before the first media timeout.
Demps was a valuable recurring player throughout set three, but not without getting a short start with an attack error, an error that awarded A&M their first point of the set.
Demps, however, swooped in after the first media timeout with a service ace, later followed by a kill which set the score at 17-21.
Moments later, Demp brought home set three for the Tigers with her second and last service ace of the set, closing the third frame with a close score of 25-20.
Yet that energy wasn’t strong enough to aid LSU in set four.
LSU called their first timeout of the set when the score sat at 10-6, and the Tigers found themselves on a four-point deficit.
“I didn’t think we were very intentional about what we were doing in set four,” Johnson said.
She felt that the team’s lack of intention in their plays is what placed them behind.
“That is something for us that has to change for this team in order for us to win consistently.”
After undergoing a loss in the fourth game 25-24, the Tigers spun into set five, an uplifting game for the Tigers.
Freshman middle blocker Jessica Jones felt that their tanks should’ve been completely out of gas, but they knew they couldn’t stop. They wouldn’t stop.
“Our energy was just to keep pushing,” Jones said.
Their energy transformed the teams’ mindset throughout set five.
“It’s the funnest set to play,” Jones said. “We had the mindset of three mini games to five.”
Breaking set five down into mini games allowed the Tigers to take it one play at a time, making the idea of winning a little less challenging.
Approaching the game with a new mindset worked in their favor as LSU’s kills rattled the Aggies and prompted six errors from them.
Three of those errors came from junior outside hitter Taylor Humphrey and another from junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, who ranks No. 2 in the SEC in blocks and No. 8 in blocks per set.
Her ranking however, was no match for LSU as the Tigers finished the set with nine kills. Robinson supported the team with four of those, followed by both Demps and Jones with two kills each.
LSU won set five with a close call of 15-10, ultimately winning their third set and the overall match 3-2.
The match was led by Robinson, with 23 kills, and Jones with 10 blocks.
So what did the Tigers learn from this close match, and how will they carry it with them as they take on Florida next Sunday?
Coach Johnson said the fact the team is very young means that there’s always room to grow, so the players are always learning as they progress.
“Not letting the team go on multiple runs over and over again,” Robinson said, is something she feels the team needs to work on.
In mastering that, the Tigers are hoping to maintain the ball and move through next Sunday’s match with confidence and, in turn, manage to play quality volleyball for a longer amount of time and bring home a Tiger win.
