Being on the road is usually a disadvantage in any sport.But the LSU volleyball team didn’t seem to have any problems with being away this weekend. The Tigers swept a pair of road matches at Alabama and Mississippi State, giving the team a six-match road winning streak.”This was the first [Southeastern Conference] weekend where I felt we were just as balanced and efficient on Sunday as we were on Friday,” LSU coach Fran Flory said in news release. “That was the goal for the trip, and [senior setter] Sam [Dabbs] did a great job of pointing our team to this match in the locker room.”LSU (11-4, 5-1) stormed out of the gates and recorded a 25-14, 25-14, 25-13 sweep Sunday afternoon against the Bulldogs (4-13, 0-6).The only set to provide much drama was the third as the two teams split the first 22 points, but LSU won the 14 of the final 16 points to earn the easy victory. The Tigers hit at a .391 clip for the match and held a 42-21 advantage in kills throughout the match. Senior outside hitter Marina Skender had a game-high 13 kills for LSU, and senior Brittnee Cooper added nine kills. “We did an excellent job of exploiting serving zones,” Flory said. “Jill Wilson, our assistant coach, had a great game plan. That’s something that had to improve if we want to take the next step as a team and play at the highest levels.”LSU’s defense had one of its strongest performances of the season in the match and held Mississippi State to a season-low 21 kills and a .000 attack percentage. The Tigers have now beaten the Bulldogs in seven straight meetings, but Flory is still impressed with Mississippi State first-year coach Jenny Hazelwood.”Mississippi State is playing extremely hard under their new coach,” Flory said before the match in a news release. “They have a different level of confidence.” The Tigers began their dominant weekend on Friday in a four-set victory against Alabama (6-10, 4-2). Senior outside hitter Marina Skender led LSU’s offensive attack against the Crimson Tide and muscled 19 kills. “Our outside hitters did a tremendous job of putting away out of system balls,” Flory said. Dabbs had one of her best performances of the season setting up the Tigers’ outside hitters and dished out a match-high 52 assists to put LSU’s outside hitters in a position to record kills.Junior Angela Bensend recorded 12 kills in the match, and senior Brittnee Cooper and sophomore Michele Williams added nine and seven kills, respectively.LSU jumped on the Crimson Tide early and won the opening set, 25-11. Alabama evened the match with a second-set win, but LSU stormed back in third and fourth sets to secure the win. —-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]