The LSU volleyball team extended its winning streak to nine matches Sunday the same way it started the run, defeating Arkansas in five sets, 21-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-9.
In early October, the last time LSU (14-8, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) and Arkansas (11-13, 5-6 SEC) met, the Razorbacks won two of the first three sets before the Tigers clawed their way back for their first conference win. A month later, the circumstances were different, with LSU riding an eight-game conference winning streak, but the result was the same.
Arkansas took the first two sets again, but the Tigers didn’t quit. LSU got back into the match on the shoulders of a five-block third set and junior outside hitter Cati Leak. The Tigers added four fourth-set blocks and three fifth-set blocks, including two solo blocks from Leak.
Leak finished the match with three solo blocks and three block assists, tying sophomore middle blocker Briana Holman for the team lead with six total blocks. LSU’s 14 blocks as a team is tied for its second highest total of the season, only falling short to its 17-block performance at Alabama.
Leak also finished second on the team in digs with 11, trailing junior defensive specialist Haley Smith’s 20 digs. But it wasn’t all about the defense for the Tigers.
Holman put up her second consecutive 20-kill performance, finishing the game with 23. Leak and junior outside hitter Katie Lindelow were the other two Tigers with double-digit kills, with 11 and 10 each.
LSU coach Fran Flory said she can see her team, especially Holman, continuing to figure things out.
“We are starting to really become a good volleyball team and not a team with just athletic players playing volleyball,” Flory said via text message. “It’s not just watching players like Briana Holman being athletic, but actually using her and her teammates’ abilities to take the right shots and work together as a whole.”
Six different Tigers had an ace in the match, but the most important one came from Smith, who ended the match with an ace that clipped the top of the net before falling in front of diving Razorbacks.
Flory said the come-from-behind victory wasn’t the Tigers’ best match of the season, but she is proud of how her team battled back.
“We fought through adversity getting here, and we have kids playing through injury, and they played themselves off of the wall,” Flory said in a news release. “They refused to let another team dictate how they were going to play, and if they were going to lose it was because they were beaten and not because they gave up.”
The Tigers will look to keep their streak going as they head to College Station, Texas, on Thursday to face RPI No. 18 Texas A&M on the SEC Network. Flory said her confidence in her entire rotation increases with each game and hopes it continues Thursday and throughout the rest of the season.
“We are starting to be 10, 11 players deep and we are nowhere close to the potential I think we can be at by the end of the season,” Flory said.