After a successful night in the PMAC against Boston College, the Tigers made a 10 a.m. start against North Florida to continue their last weekend of non-conference play.
The Tigers came out scoring fast, a point of emphasis from head coach Tonya Johnson after last weekend’s games in Waco.
“I absolutely think that they, especially in the first two matches [of the weekend against Boston College and UNF], they got great starts in each set,” Johnson said.
LSU went on a 7-3 run to start the match and were firing on all cylinders with a program record crowd of 3,547, including many local elementary students, cheering them on.
The Tigers would play to impress their screaming supporters, and it helped the Tigers to keep the pressure on UNF, taking a 20-15 lead in the first set.
The screams and cheers got even louder as UNF sailed the ball out of bounds at match point to give LSU set one.
LSU was visibly relaxed during the match, including Jade Demps, who sang along with her teammates during breaks.
In the second frame, LSU served first but gave the point to UNF with a service error.
While set two was back and forth, LSU was able to force a UNF timeout after they found their stride. Outside hitter AC Froehlich and middle blocker Angelina Lee made a big impact in the middle of the frame giving LSU a 15-10 lead.
Tigers head coach Tonya Johnson paced the coach’s box after a 4-0 run by UNF, then watched as UNF made a service error and subsequently called a timeout.
The timeout was too little, too late for UNF as Jessica Jones converted the set point on a powerful kill to take set two.
In set three, the Tigers got hot starting with a 6-2 run, but that was quickly taken away as UNF went on a 5-2 run of their own to make the score 8-7 LSU.
A miscommunication forced LSU to take a timeout, but the Bayou Bengals came out of the break calm, cool and collected.
LSU continued to put pressure on UNF, raising the third set lead to 16-11.
With the score at 24-18 and UNF out of timeouts, the Ospreys were in desperation mode to prevent a sweep by the Tigers. However, they fell during the longest volley of the match to a kill from Lee, who seemed to be in all the right places.
“My teammates always have my back, whether it’s good, bad or ugly. It’s all in my teammates, I can’t do anything without them,” said Lee in regards to her game changing efforts this weekend.
The Tigers answered their coaches call to start fast but left points on the floor and had what Johnson described as a lack of consistency.
“We have to get to the point where we are executing at a higher level and executing for a much longer period of time” Johnson said.
LSU’s evening game came after a long day of volleyball in the PMAC, and the Tigers were looking to put a bow on what was at the time a flawless weekend. LSU and San Diego squared off at 7 p.m. with both teams looking to win big.
LSU was on the board first as USD started with a service error but quickly found themselves in a 3-1 deficit, a trend that would continue throughout the night.
Coming out of a timeout, the Tigers’ Jones began an LSU rally, cutting the score to 17-18 USD and, for the first time in the match, putting some pressure on the Toreros.
On set point for USD, Jurnee Robinson refused to quit, and successfully kept the Tigers alive with the score at 24-22.
The Tigers were eventually tripped up by a powerful spike from USD’s Nemo Beach, and USD took set one.
“This team is gritty, they’re not going to lay down and quit, and I admire that about them,” Johnson said of the Tigers’ set–extending rallies.
Just like Johnson, Robinson, who was unavailable in the first two matches this weekend, acknowledged that LSU has room to grow.
“We have a lot to grow on, and a lot to learn,” Robinson said. “We’re a young team, we have to be able to mature when we play an older team. We couldn’t handle that [tonight]. We sometimes we have to grow up and learn how to handle it.”
Something that Johnson has noted before is the chemistry of this team, and it showed in a much-needed way after set one.
The Tigers began set three with a service error and quickly fell behind 0-3.
The Toreros later went on a 9-0 scoring run before making a service error, which the Tigers tried to capitalize on. They managed to get one point out of it before sending one out of bounds to make the score 20-12 USD.
The 9-0 run was something that Johnson wanted to prevent.
“They really got us out of system and got us to the point where sometimes we couldn’t pass,” Johnson said.
The Tigers took the court for set three with an aggressive mindset and got on the board first, but the errors kept on coming for LSU, as it quickly gave up the ball and the lead to USD.
The match was decided after a USD challenge awarded them match point, and the Tigers went down 0-3 in a sweep in their evening match. Still, they salvaged a 2-1 record in their last weekend of non-conference games.
“We gotta go back to the drawing board,” Johnson said after looking at the post-game report.
The message this week as the Tigers head into SEC play hosting Mizzou: serve and pass consistently and control the momentum.
