After her team’s victory over Georgia two weeks ago, LSU head volleyball coach Fran Flory said her team would have to win out to have any chance of catching Arkansas for the Southeastern Conference West championship.
So far, so good as LSU (17-7, 7-4 SEC) swept their weekend series in the PMAC, defeating Auburn on Friday, 3-0, before coming back to dispose of Alabama, 3-1, on Sunday to record their fourth and fifth straight wins. LSU now solely posses second place in the West, and trails leader Arkansas by two-and-a-half games.
In the victory over Alabama on Sunday, LSU came back and won after losing the opening game for the first time this season.
After falling 30-32 in game one, the Tigers came back and swept the next three games to jump one-and-a-half games ahead of third place Alabama.
Jennifer Hampton led a balanced attack, recording 25 kills and 11 digs for her 14th double-double of the season. She had a hitting percentage of .444.
Regan Hood chipped in with 10 kills and a .500 hitting percentage, and Kyra Lancon added eight kills and three service aces.
“This was a big win for this team,” Flory said. “This will go a long way for us in the SEC standings. It was a tough loss for us when we went to Tuscaloosa, so it was great for us to come away with the win at home.”
LSU used well placed serving Friday to put away an overmatched Auburn (1-23, 0-12 SEC) team.
“I was pleased with the outcome of the match,” Flory said. “I was not real happy with how we executed on our side. I thought we needed to have the killer instinct a little more. We relied on their errors rather than relying on ourselves playing in a positive way. We were not very efficient offensively.”
LSU used of mixture of experience and youth in the effort with senior Rachel Vogt leading the way. She recorded 11 kills and 9 digs to pace the Tigers. Hampton and sophomore middle blocker Hood both chipped in with nine kills.
To the pleasure of Flory, the Tigers recorded 13 service aces, including six by so Lancon.
“We have just tried to serve more aggressively as the season has progressed,” Flory said. “We find a range in the court that we are pretty good in serving at, and they did not defend it and they did not adjust.”