LSU’s first few in conference matches were less than ideal.
LSU ended with a 7-11 record with their Southeastern Conference games. After dropping to Georgia, losing in straight sets to South Carolina, trailing to Florida and falling to Texas A&M, the Tigers were in need of a change before Ole Miss.
The Georgia game was a long, tough, five set match ending in scores of 21-25, 32-34, 25-18, 25-16, 11-15. The second set was where the team really started to find their flow. It was a rigorous battle where the entire set was tied up 15 times and had eight lead changes.
“That second set where we literally took them all the way to 32-34, it was a real big game changer,” junior Milan Stokes commented. “Just that fact that we hung in there so long and we let kind of all those good emotions generate and flow into the third fourth and fifth.”
That game changer caused LSU to win the third and fourth set to tie up the game. Head coach Fran Flory said this was also due to a changed lineup and putting people in different positions which seemed to give the Tigers more control. However, the fifth match ended in the team’s first in conference loss.
Two days later, LSU traveled to Charleston to play South Carolina. South Carolina was the debatably the hardest Southeastern Conference game LSU has played thus far. The Tigers fell in three quick sets with scores of 19-25, 22-25, 19-25. The South Carolina game is where the Tigers had their lowest hitting percentage.
“You need a good kill to error ratio and that’s what was struggling,” junior Anna Zweibel described. The team had a 30:21 kill to error ratio for that game. For comparison the ratio was 55:23 for the Georgia game.
The Gamecocks came to play. “You could feel South Carolina's presence as soon as they hit the court,” Stokes said. They came in focused and determined which became prominent in their win over LSU.
Florida was a much anticipated game because it was the first SEC game in the PMAC. Even so, the Tigers couldn’t keep up and trailed the Gators with scores of 23-25, 21-25, 19-25. Stokes had her first time leading as an outside hitter.
“I prayed, I absolutely relied on faith,” Stokes proudly stated. “I’m a little bit undersized for my position, but at the same time in my philosophy, that doesn’t matter. Size doesn't matter. Your attack and your will power matters.”
Florida was also where Zweibel put up her second set of 30 plus assist. “Florida is a very good team. We played a lot better than we have been. We were connecting, I was connecting with everyone.”
The Tigers put up a fair fight. The team is performing statistically, but it just doesn’t seem to be enough.
LSU continued into the weekend by playing Texas A&M. This game ended in a five set heartbreaker with scores of 26-24, 21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 13-15. Stokes, however, finished with a season-high 13 kills making it her second match in double-digits. She credits her experience from the Florida game and her faith for this accomplishment.
“I believe through all things Christ Jesus strengthens me,” Stokes said referring to the Philippians verse. “I think in Texas A&M, at that point we had such a good opportunity to win. We broke through in terms of fight and kind of finding that level of intensity we need to handle other people in the SEC.”
Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to pull out the win. These four loses definitely wasn’t how LSU wanted to start. The team is going to have to start improve to take on their next handful of SEC games.
“Good things will happen for this team, it just hasn't happened yet,” coach Flory concluded. “we can’t hit the panic button because we have a lot of matches ahead of us. We have a core group that is really, really solid. We just have to play confidently.”
*Pictures are not my own, but from LSU Daily Reveille
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