If the No. 11 LSU volleyball team was distracted by the atmosphere of senior night, it certainly did not show on the court. In front of the 11th-largest crowd in LSU volleyball history, the Tigers clenched their first outright Southeastern Conference Western Division title Friday night with a three-game sweep of the University of Alabama, 30-22, 30-19 and 30-28. The win also served as retribution for the Tigers. The Crimson Tide was the only SEC team besides the University of Florida to defeat LSU this season. Sophomore outside hitters Marina Skender and Kyna Washington led the Tigers’ offense with 19 and 10 kills, respectively, while senior libero Kassi Mikulik guided the defense with 15 digs. Junior middle blocker Crystal Hudson led the Crimson Tide with 18 kills, and sophomore outside hitter Sarah Snider added 18 digs in the match. Both teams came out strong, but the Tigers pushed an early lead to 10-6 following a block by junior Vanessa Freeman and freshman Lauren DeGirolamo. The Crimson Tide fought back quickly and used a service ace to take their first lead of the game, 12-11. That lead increased to 20-19 before LSU took a 24-22 advantage and scored the final six points of the game to win, 30-22. The Tigers started the second game much like the first, jumping out to an early 13-5 lead and increasing that margin to as many as 12 points. Alabama showed resiliency by cutting the Tigers’ advantage to 9, but the Crimson Tide’s comeback effort fizzled as LSU dominated game two, 30-19. Mikulik said self-inflicted wounds by the Crimson Tide encouraged the Tigers to step up their level of play. “They had a lot of errors in a row, and we kind of fed off of that and started playing our game,” Mikulik said. Alabama showed fans in the PMAC that its 10-6 Southeastern Conference record was no fluke, beginning game three with a 7-5 advantage, but a kill by LSU’s Washington brought the score to 7 apiece. The score was locked up at 20 when Skender recorded her 16th kill of the game to give LSU the 21-20 lead. The game would be tied three more times before the Tigers took a 25-24 advantage they would not relinquish, capping the 30-28 victory with a kill by senior middle blocker Melody Clark. LSU coach Fran Flory said she was proud of the way her team performed Friday night. “We played very efficiently tonight,” Flory said. “We were very balanced. I think that we ran our offense very well. Our middles did a great job playing defense and forcing their middles out of their normal shot selection and force them into some errors.” Flory said she thinks the team felt extra incentive rather than pressure to perform well in the seniors’ home finale. “I think we were driven to succeed in our last home match,” she said. “Senior night sometimes backfires, but sometimes it’s a positive.” Washington said the night was very sentimental for the entire team. “It was a lot of emotions flying,” Washington said. “The seniors went out with a bang, and we came out with a win.” With the Tigers almost guaranteed to make an NCAA Tournament appearance for the second-straight season, the possibility of hosting a first-round match seems highly probable. “Hopefully this isn’t the last match we play [in the PMAC],” Flory said. “But if it is, then we took care of business, and we reached that goal [the SEC West championship] for the season as well.”
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