The Lady Tigers finished another weekend on a high note.
LSU Volleyball traveled to Michigan this past weekend to play Colorado State and Michigan — both of which the team fell to. That Saturday, LSU traveled to Rochester to compete against Oakland and pulled out a sweep win.
This bounce back improved LSU’s season record to 3-6. Sophomore Taylor Bannister led the team yet again with 40 kills total this weekend.
“I went back to right side and eventually got switched back to inside, but as Fran said, I wasn’t as comfortable on the right as I usually was last year,” said Bannister. “Michigan had a very good block, so trying to maneuver with hits I could usually get away with, I couldn’t get away with this time. [At Oakland] emotions set in to where we took the game to a different level, at least, I know personally that’s what happened to me in the second set.”
Senior Lindsay Flory pulled impressive stats, finishing with 86 assists total, the most she’s had in a weekend this season.
“We’re really technical and working with our teammates in the systems we run and making sure we’re all comfortable where the sets are going, who’s hitting what, just kind of getting that flow with our team is really important. I can set them the ball, but they’re the ones who do all the work, they put the ball away and make the shot. So making sure they are comfortable with that,” said Flory on how she prepared for the Michigan Classic.
Despite the first two loses, LSU shutout Oakland even when it was second highest attendance in Oakland’s volleyball history. The team did not let their previous loses, or the home crowd, bring them down — in fact, it only motivated them more.
“Once you gain a little success, you can continue to grow success,” said coach Fran Flory. “I think we learned on the weekend that we have to, instead of being afraid of failure, we had to learn how to build and use our successful contacts or plays to gain confidence. We’re a team that got our confidence broken in the beginning of the season, and we’re still very talented and we have a lot of great pieces, so I think we found confidence. We found how to do that, so I think it — this trip — was a make-our-season type of trip.”
The Tigers pulled out 14 more kills and 12 more assists than the Grizzlies. One could argue this isn’t exactly “winning odds.” The deciding factor of the win for the Tigers was serving and reducing errors.
“We served really well, and we certainly did a good job of reducing errors. We didn’t give away as many points as we have been,” Fran said.
That is something that will be applied to the next few games LSU has in Dallas. The win has motivated the team and put them in the right mindset to take over the SMU Doubletree Classic.
