Tennessee looked to bounce back following Friday night’s loss to the Kentucky Wildcats, but instead, they were once again swept out their own door, losing in three sets (19-25, 19-25, 16-25) to the LSU Tigers.
On a day where they had a lackadaisical .158 attacking percentage, the Lady Vols fell victim to a superior Tiger offense led by sophomore Briana Holman’s errorless 12 kills on 18 attacks.
The only counter UT could muster against the LSU attack was sophomore Jamie Lea, whose eight kills were the most on the team and accounted for nearly one third of Tennessee’s meager 25 kills during the match.
“I think I did well, but I couldn’t have done it without my team,” said Lea on her performance, “making some good digs, blocks, and just following the game plan.”
It seemed, however, that LSU knew what the game plan was because the Tigers reacted to Tennessee’s attacking attempts on a dime, recording 35 digs and holding the Lady Vols under 20 points in every set.
Tennessee’s youth and inconstancy shined again as the Lady Vols surrendered a 10-2 run in the first set that gave LSU the momentum to close, along with a 7-1 run at the beginning of the third set which slammed the door shut on Tennessee’s hope of pushing the game to four sets.
Head coach Rob Patrick knows his young team is prone to giving up extended runs in the heat of the moment.
“You’re going to have ups and downs with so many freshmen and young kids on the court,” noted Patrick. “You’re gonna have some inconsistent performance unfortunately, and we did not play our best match today.”
Inconsistency was personified by starting freshman Kelsey Bawcombe, who led the Lady Vols in both kills and digs last week versus Texas A&M, yet led the Lady Vols with four service errors and four attacking errors versus LSU.
The Tigers began to stumble midway through the first set, where they committed five attacking errors in six possessions, before recovering and scoring five unanswered to take a 20-15 lead, which proved to be the last time the outcome of any set was in serious doubt.
LSU setter Malorie Pardo paced the LSU offense that breezed through Thomspon-Boling Arena, tallying 34 assists, more than three times as many as any Lady Vol, as both Lexi Dempsy and Taylor Johnson finished with 11 each.
Tennessee looks to grab their first SEC win of the season when they travel to Starkville on Friday to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a matchup of the two lowest teams in the SEC.
Lea knows the team needs a win to get the ball rolling for the Lady Vols.
“I think a win is a win, whether it’s Florida, whether it’s Mississippi State or whether it’s anyone in the SEC,” Lea said, “a win is a win for us.”
