The fight for the sixth seed in the 2003 Southeastern Conference Volleyball Tournament is over after a 3-0 LSU loss to Alabama on Sunday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., (30-28, 30-18, 30-26).
The Tigers were tied with South Carolina and Kentucky for No. 6 in the conference. Both the Gamecocks and the Wildcats suffered two losses this weekend as did the Tigers. The tie-breaker now is the three teams head-to-head record.
USC likely will get the sixth seed because of its 3-1 record against the Wildcats and Tigers. LSU (11-18, 6-10 SEC) will probably take the seventh seed with a 2-2 head-to-head record, while Kentucky will likely land the last seed in the tournament.
Alabama is ranked No. 3 in the SEC and No. 2 in the Western Division with a 12-17 overall record (11-5 SEC).
The Tide scored five straight to take a 7-2 lead early on in the game. Two of those points came from LSU errors by Leaumont and Heinz. LSU had 25 errors in the match.
“I hoped that we would be past playing like a freshman team at this point, but over the last few weeks we have played like the young team that we are,” said LSU coach Fran Flory.
The Tigers chipped away at the Tide to get within one after a kill by Daniela Romero to put the score at 11-10.
Midway through the game an attack error by Alabama’s Julie Farley gave the Tigers 17 points to tie the Crimson Tide but a service error gave Alabama the next point.
The game stayed tight with LSU following close behind. When Alabama reached 29 points, LSU scored two straight with a kill from Regan Hood and an Alabama error to push the game to 29-28. An error by Leaumont gave the Tide the win 30-28.
In game two, the Crimson Tide again started the scoring with two straight points, a service ace by Abbi Blackburn and a kill by Erin Price. Once again LSU answered with two straight points of their own at the start of the game with a kill by Regan Hood and a Kassi Mikulik service ace.
Unlike game one, Alabama pulled away early in game two. Four straight points for the Tide came off kills by Farley and Heffner and errors by LSU’s Heinz and Romero.
A kill by Heffner, midway through the game, started a six point run by Alabama. The streak put the Tide up 21-14 and turned the momentum of the rest of the game in the Tide’s favor.
The Tide dominated the rest of the game, taking the 30-18 win with an Erin Price kill.
Errors by Leaumont and Hood gave the Tide the early two point lead in game three before the Tigers scored four staight points to go up 4-2. Three of LSU’s points came from Alabama errors and one came from a kill by Heinz.
Several Tigers recorded kills to keep the Tigers in control of game three, including Heinz who scored points 14, 15 and 16 for the Tigers. Heinz had nine kills in the match. Hood, Leaumont and Melody Clark also tallied nine kills in three games for the Tigers.
The Tide continued to sneak up on the Tigers lead until they tied the game at 26 with a kill by Bibber.
Alabama then surprised the Tigers with a four-point run that gave the Tide the win at 30-26.
Flory said the Tigers lack of consistency kept them from winning.
“We did a very poor job of maintaining what we had been doing [in game three],” Flory said. “We had some unusual ball control.”
LSU will now prepare for the SEC tournament that begins on Nov. 21 in Columbia, S.C.