It almost seemed like deja vu in the PMAC Tuesday night.
After knocking the Tiger volleyball squad out of a chance to share the Southeastern Conference Western Division title last year, Kentucky may have knocked LSU (15-8, 7-5 SEC) out of the same opportunity to win the West this season.
Led by Kristen Batt’s 21 kills, the Wildcats beat the Tigers 23-30, 30-25, 31-29, 30-24 in LSU’s last home game of the year. This was a makeup game due to Hurricane Lili.
The loss ends the Tigers’ five-game win streak.
Head coach Fran Flory said she did not think her team respected Kentucky enough.
“I was concerned about this match because we went for broke against Alabama,” Flory said. “The problem was that we just didn’t respect them. We didn’t expect them to be that good. That’s our fault. That’s poor preparation. I preached all week that Kentucky was pretty tough.”
Freshman Cara Causey said Kentucky played with more passion than the Tigers did.
“Tonight Kentucky wanted it a lot more than we did,” Causey said. “There were a lot of plays that we guessed on. Basically, they just played harder than we did. They got it done when it needed to get done.”
While seniors Jennifer Hampton, the reigning SEC Player of the Week, and Rachel Vogt did register 12 and 10 kills, respectively, both struggled to keep the ball in. Hampton finished with a .128 hitting percentage, and Vogt only managed a .148 percentage.
Sophomore Regan Hood led the Tigers with 18 kills on a .424 hitting percentage for the night.
Unforced errors doomed the Tigers all night. LSU would build up momentum, but 13 service errors and 27 attack errors hurt their cause.
“You rely on your seniors to come through for you in clutch time,” Flory said. “We put them in a position to be successful, and unfortunately seniors didn’t come through for us. It’s too bad because it’s the last home match on this floor, but you have to earn the right to get ahead. We earned it, then gave it right back to them.”
The Tigers will be in action Friday on the road at Mississippi State. LSU will continue the Mississippi swing with a trip to Ole Miss on Sunday, before finishing the season the following weekend at Arkansas and Tennessee.
Flory said the team still has goals it can meet, despite the fact they may be out of the chase for the SEC West crown.
“We have to know that the teams we’re playing from here on out are fighting for survival,” Flory said. “Yeah, we’re in the [SEC] tournament, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to be in the NCAA Tournament.”