LSU volleyball suffered an 0-3 sweep by Ole Miss in the first round of the Allstate SEC Volleyball Tournament in Savannah, Georgia.
Historically, LSU was 4-0 when facing Ole Miss in the tournament before its hiatus in 2005, but would suffer its first loss to the Rebels on Friday in the tournament’s first year back.
For an LSU team that recorded a 3-2 victory over Ole Miss in the final stretch of the regular season, this post-season tournament loss stung. Not only was this loss devastating, it was unusual in terms of the Tigers’ performance.
Where did LSU go wrong?
The entire night the Tigers looked defeated. LSU was held to a .068 hitting percentage the entire match, its worst offensive performance of the season. The usual dominance on LSU’s side of the court simply didn’t seem to click.
LSU didn’t look like itself from the start of the match. In the beginning, the Rebels had taken a huge lead due to out-of-bounds kills and blocks which forced the Tigers to burn through both of their timeouts rather quickly. In LSU’s last timeout, Ole Miss led 19-9. A 10 point deficit like that is not something you often see from the Tigers.
Too many cracks in the court on LSU’s defense allowed Ole Miss to land kill after kill in spots that the Tigers were not covering. LSU has struggled with its defensive consistency all throughout the regular season and that was prominent in this post-season matchup.
In addition, the Tigers’ communication seemed to be off. Multiple defensive errors were just within reach of avoidance by the Tigers, but miscommunications on the court in terms of who went after the ball led to major lead advantages for the Rebels.
The Tigers dropped the first set of the night 13-25, and something needed to be changed. Whether it was communication on offense or a step up on defense, the team needed to figure out a new strategy heading into the next set.
Unfortunately for LSU, no new strategy was found.
The second set played out the same way for the Tigers, once again with defensive miscommunication and mistakes. Multiple stuffed blocks back on LSU’s side of the court harmed the Tigers, the Rebels simply overpowering the team. LSU dropped the second 13-25 just like the first, a now amped-up Ole Miss team aiming for a sweep.
Head coach Tonya Johnson has said all season that her team is gritty and plays their usual LSU volleyball. For Tiger fans watching the match, they did not see that LSU volleyball performance that they knew.
LSU retaliated early in the third set to force multiple ties, but it was no use as Ole Miss advanced their lead 15-13 heading into the media timeout. Again, out-of-bounds blocks and miscommunication killed the Tigers’ hopes of advancing past the first round of the tournament.
While a record night from freshman right side Camryn Jeffrey went underway as she claimed a match-high four blocks out of the five the Tigers recorded, defensive efforts ultimately fell short against the Rebels.
This disappointing loss crushed the hopes of another match for the Tigers in 2025 as they fell just below the .500 threshold necessary to make the NCAA Tournament, forcing them to instead focus on how to better themselves ahead of the 2026 regular season.
