Teams across the country are slowly gearing up for postseason play, and LSU is among many that are training with their eyes set on getting a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The road ahead may be a little more difficult than the Tigers had hoped for, though. After seeing most of their conference foes once this season, head coach Tonya Johnson has her team at 3-5 in SEC play and 8-10 overall.
The last few weeks have been hectic, usually with two games, but this past week, the Tigers had more time off with only one game on Sunday, Oct. 22.
“It’s been great to just have an opportunity to train this week and take a little bit of time off for [the players] to focus on school a little bit,” Johnson said. “It’s been a good week of training in terms of what we’ve been working on and what we’re trying to get better.”
Now, let’s take a look at what LSU volleyball has done in the last couple of weeks.
In week four of SEC volleyball, the Tigers went 0-2 against Texas A&M and Georgia after losing both matches in four sets. Johnson said that her team had good games against the two teams but couldn’t execute plays when it mattered most.
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When Texas A&M came to visit Baton Rouge on Friday, Oct. 13, the Aggies took the win 25-23, 16-25, 25-21, 25-16. The win came off a .229 efficiency, 50 kills and 11 blocks.
The first set was back and forth up to the very end. The teams were tied at 22-22 before three kills by Logan Lednicky secured the close-set win for the Aggies.
In set two, the Tigers were more aggressive from the service line and at the net. The first 10 points of the set consisted of four aces and four kills by the Tigers. LSU eventually went on to hit .310 overall to take the set.
In sets three and four, LSU was defeated by its own hitting errors and lack of offensive production after hitting .086 through both, including a zero percent attacking efficiency in set three.
“We’ve got to be able to put ourselves in a position to finish instead of hurting ourselves,” Johnson said. “We just got to make sure we’re laser-focused during those times.”
After the tough A&M loss, LSU hit the road for Athens on Sunday, Oct. 15, and battled it out with a strong Georgia team. The match was a tight contest the entire time, but the Bulldogs pulled away for the 25-22, 26-28, 25-21, 25-22 win.
At 16-22, LSU went on a 6-1 run in the first set to inch closer at 22-23, but Georgia outlasted the Tigers to finish off the last two points for the set. Late in set two, the Tigers fought off three Georgia set points to come back and take the set.
In set three, LSU had 10 kills, but five errors; a .161 efficiency kept the Tigers from keeping up with Georgia, which hit .216. The story followed similarly in set four as Georgia hit .259 and took advantage of Tiger mistakes to send LSU home.
LSU had more kills than Georgia in every set except for the third, but once again, the errors late in sets are what kept the Tigers from a win. A large area of struggle was service as a whole; in the match, LSU had seven reception errors and 13 service errors.
“I wish we hadn’t come up on the short end of [sets],” Johnson said. “It’s 23-22 and we serve a ball into the net. Now it’s 24-22, and then we let a [serve] drop right in the middle of us at match point. That can’t happen.”
When the final scores of LSU’s two previous losses are looked at a little deeper, the 3-1 finish is much more than it seems. Against Texas A&M, the Aggies finished with 65 points. LSU had 62. Against Georgia, the Bulldogs finished with 75 points. LSU had 69.
The two games finished with a combined difference of nine points.
Against Texas A&M, the Tigers had 25 hitting errors. Against Georgia, the Tigers had 23 hitting errors.
LSU had 48 chances to convert to points, but instead gave each opponent more of an advantage. Part of the offensive struggles comes from the lack of a stable OH-2; star freshman Jurnee Robinson has secured her spot in the lineup at OH-1 as LSU’s most productive hitter, but her counterpart has varied throughout the season.
Preseason All-SEC selection Sanaa Dotson was LSU’s most productive hitter just a season ago and was expected to continue with even more fire this season. Despite initially high expectations, Dotson is hitting just .199 on the season and has only one double-double.
The graduate student has had her ups and downs, but other players have been given the shot to show their talents on the court.
Paige Flickinger has seen a good amount of playing time this season but isn’t having any more luck than Dotson as she’s only hitting .156 on the season. In the last few games, though, she and graduate student Samarah Hill have both gotten a few more chances on the court than usual.
With Hill hitting .100 on the season, the only three options available for OH-2 have all been underperforming.
“That spot’s been a revolving door all year long,” Johnson said. “I’m just waiting for someone to step up and say, ‘I want this to be my spot.’ We need some other people to perform besides Jurnee. Jurnee needs some help.”
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Robinson is second among all hitters on the team in terms of hitting percentage and first in kills per set. Johnson said that Robinson’s defense has improved the most this season as she started to fully embrace her role as a six-rotation player. Since the beginning of the season, she’s contributed to the team’s occasional success, but always finds herself carrying the team on her back.
The rest of the offense for LSU has been a slight bright spot for the team this season. The middles combine for 33% of the team’s offense and hit at an efficiency of .296 overall.
A large part of the middle production comes from graduate student Anita Anwusi. Johnson said that she has consistently challenged her veteran middle to be an offensive weapon, and in response, Anwusi is averaging 2.11 kills per set on a .364 efficiency.
“Anita has really taken a big step for us,” Johnson said. “I’ve challenged her a few times to do some things offensively…she’s just accepted those challenges and she’s having a pretty good offensive year. She’s hitting .350-something on the year–at the end of last year, I think she was in the .250s. As a middle, she should be hitting in the .350-400 range, so she’s done a really nice job stepping up.”
Anwusi’s season average of 2.57 points per set is mostly due to her offensive production, but the Preseason All-SEC selection has also been a defensive weapon for the Tigers.
She has been involved in 54 of LSU’s 75 team blocks, and Johnson said that she commends Anwusi and the rest of her blockers for working to get better at the net.
“Facing [Texas] A&M–who’s the top blocking team in the conference–I felt we did pretty well against them,” Johnson said. “And even against Georgia–they’re pretty big and physical too. We did a really nice job offensively against them, trying to tool [the block] and hit the right shots, but we also did a pretty decent job of blocking against them.”
Aside from blocking, defense in the backcourt has been the biggest concern for LSU all season; the lack of Ella Larkin in the libero jersey has proven to be more of an issue than fans expected.
This season, the Tigers are averaging 12.78 digs per set. Last season, partially because of Larkin’s 4.34 average, the Tigers averaged 15.38 digs per set.
Two players have seen time on the floor as LSU’s starting libero this season: graduate transfer Erin Carmichael and sophomore Bri Anderson.
Through 58 sets of play, Carmichael has compiled 121 digs and averages 2.09 per set. Most of her time in the libero jersey came in the early season, but midway through the season, Anderson was given the opportunity. After 48 sets, Anderson has 106 digs and averages 2.21 per set.
Their numbers are similar, with Anderson producing a bit more, and the spot is still fluid and ever-changing. Anderson had been the Tigers’ libero for the last few matches, but Carmichael got the nod in LSU’s road match on Sunday, Oct. 22.
After suffering four straight losses and losing six of its last eight, LSU volleyball put a tally in the win column after they traveled to Tuscaloosa during week five of SEC volleyball. The Tigers swept Alabama, 25-21, 25-23, 25-20.
Carmichael picked up 15 digs in LSU’s three-set win over the Tide, just one shy of tying her season-high for digs in a three-set match. Her consistent production in the backcourt along with LSU cleaning up its blocking is vital to the team’s success.
Against Alabama, LSU put up eight blocks and dug 44 Tide attacks. Alabama had 38 kills and 18 errors to finish the match with a .194 hitting percentage. The Tigers hit .270 after 44 kills and 17 errors.
Another part of LSU’s game that has been changed is the type of offense used; in the first half of the season, Johnson opted for the more preferred 5-1 offense.
Sophomore Maddie Waak was given the reins and led LSU’s offense, but to change things up after early season struggles, Johnson shifted to a 6-2 and threw graduate transfer Emily Mitter into the mix.
In a 6-2, there are always three attackers at the net and the setter can only set from the back row. When the setter is transitioning to the front row, they are subbed out for a right-side hitter, and vice versa.
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Since Waak and Mitter are both under six feet tall, Johnson said that running a 6-2 has improved the Tigers’ blocking and offense since it allows for taller, more physical hitters to be up at the net. Six-foot-two senior Jade Demps and six-foot-one redshirt sophomore Ellie Echter come in as LSU’s two right-side hitters.
“[Demps and Echter] have both done a nice job,” Johnson said. “If we can get some more sets to them back [on the right pin] so that they can provide a little bit more offensive production for us, I think we’re in a good spot.”
Demps and Echter are both new to the court for LSU this season, but Demps has been a starter since the first game. Echter just started seeing consistent floor time a couple of weeks ago.
Although she hasn’t been a major contributor for long, Johnson said that she’s seen great things from Echter in the last few games. Against Alabama, Echter was seven of 14 with only one hitting error—her hitting percentage of .429 was second on the team.
“She’s just been steady,” Johnson said. “She doesn’t ride the wave of the emotional roller coaster. Nothing really gets to her, she just goes and she competes. You see the same look on her face the entire time. It’s not too high. It’s not too low. She’s done a really nice job.”
After two straight road matches at Georgia and Alabama, the Tigers are back in the PMAC this week to host No. 15 Kentucky (10-7, 8-1 SEC) and South Carolina (8-10, 2-7 SEC).
LSU plays the Wildcats on Friday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. on SEC Network. LSU then plays the Gamecocks on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. on SEC Network+.
LSU opened its SEC slate with an away game at Kentucky and was defeated in four sets. The meeting on Sunday will be the Tigers’ first time playing South Carolina this season.
“I keep telling people: Everybody in our conference is good,” Johnson said. “You cannot take a night off in this conference because everybody’s good.”
