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It may have been the hangover from a five set match Friday night, a long day spent Saturday tailgating or the fact that Kentucky had a bye Friday night.Whatever the case, all LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory knew was that her team didn’t show up to play Sunday afternoon against No. 16 Kentucky, as the Tigers fell in straight sets for the first time this season, 3-0 (22-25, 15-25, 21-25).With the loss, LSU is now 33-5 in the last four years in the Southeastern Conference at home. Its only losses have been to Kentucky (two times) and Florida (three times).”What’s important is that we have to know we have to come out and play every single time we put the uniform on, and our team didn’t come to play today,” Flory said. “I don’t know if they were hung over [from Friday night], but they looked physically tired, and when you are in SEC play, you can’t be tired.”The Tigers (7-4) were outmatched and outplayed all match at the net, as the Wildcats (11-1) accumulated 14.5 blocks against LSU’s six, one of the better defensive blocking teams in the SEC.”They controlled every aspect of the game, and we could never break through,” Flory said.Kentucky junior outside hitter Sarah Mendoza led the charge for the Wildcats, racking up 10 kills, eight digs, one solo block and three block assists.”Sarah is always steady, although I wouldn’t say she had her best offensive match of the season,” said Kentucky coach Craig Skinner. “She didn’t make very many mistakes though.”The Tigers never matched Kentucky’s intensity in the first set, as they fell behind by as many as five points and never got within two late in the set.The second set wasn’t much prettier, as LSU fell behind 9-1 to start the set and had a weekend-low sideout percentage — getting your serve back after losing it — of 41 percent (10-of-24). The Tigers hit .059 in the set and .126 overall for the match.”It was kind of hard because we never got into an offensive rhythm,” said senior middle blocker Brittnee Cooper. “We just looked a little tired out there in the first match, and after that we couldn’t pick it up.”But Friday night was a different story for the Tigers.While defense marked the majority of Friday night’s match against Tennessee, an offensive outburst, led by junior outside hitter Angela Bensend’s four kills in the final set, sent the 10th largest crowd in school history home cheering, as LSU took home a 3-2 (31-29, 23-25, 22-25, 25-12, 15-11) victory.With the victory, LSU moved to 1-3 in Friday night matches and 2-2 in five set matches this season.”Angela Bensend was the key to the match in the last two sets for us.” Flory said. “She hasn’t been feeling very well, so we were trying to protect her a little bit, but what a great performance. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”Down two sets to one, LSU outscored the Lady Vols in the final two sets, 45-23, while holding Tennessee to a .000 hitting percentage in the fourth set.LSU had an 83 percent (10-of-12) and 75 percent (9-of-12) sideout efficiency in the final two sets, respectively, thanks in part to the defensive help of sophomore libero Lauren Waclawczyk, who had a career-high 26 digs. Freshman defensive specialist Sam Delahoussaye added on 13 digs. In total, the Tigers had 101 digs and 12 blocks on the night.”Tennessee is a great team,” Flory said. “We knew they were good, but they were very good; that was an absolute war tonight. Our kids did a great job of persevering. We lost a lot of little battles, but overall we won the war.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]