| SUNDAY VOLLEYBALL RESULTS |
Kentucky 3, Georgia 1
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Tennessee 3, Auburn 0
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Ole Miss 3, Arkansas 2
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Mississippi State 3, South Carolina 2
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LSU 3, Alabama 1
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Balanced Performance Guides UK Past Georgia
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Behind career-performances from freshman Lauren O’Conner and senior Ann Armes, the Kentucky volleyball team earned its ninth consecutive victory with a 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-18, 25-15) win over visiting Georgia, Sunday afternoon in front of 1,243 loud Big Blue fans.
O’Conner posted a career-high 14 kills on .364 hitting and added a pair of blocks to lead the offensive output for the Blue and White. Armes tallied 11 kills on a sizzling .450 hitting clip and added a career-high seven blocks.
“Ann Armes performed really well,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “She was a senior today. Throughout the conference season, you need your upperclassmen to step up, and ours did today.”
Kentucky improves to 11-2 on the season and a perfect 2-0 in Southeastern Conference action. Georgia drops to 4-8 overall and 0-2 in SEC action.
Kentucky has captured wins in nine consecutive matches and claimed 27-of-29 sets played in that stretch.
“We did a nice job in those final two sets,” Skinner said. “We did a nice job of making adjustments on the court. Georgia is a very good team. Their record is no indication of how good they are as a team. It took us a while for us to make adjustments to the things that they were doing well.”
Junior setter Christine Hartmann did a marvelous job of distributing the ball in UK’s win with six players earning five or more kills in the victory. Hartmann posted 42 assists and directed the Wildcat offense to 54 kills on .292 hitting with an average of 13 kills per stanza.
Junior Ashley Frazier contributed eight kills and three blocks. Senior Becky Pavan posted seven kills in three sets of action, while classmate Gretchen Giesler turned in a five-kill performance.
Sophomore Whitney Billings added six kills and 10 digs in the win. Junior libero Stephanie Klefot continued to shine with 17 scoops in today’s match.
Kentucky earned a 25-21 opening set victory after claiming an early 2-0 lead it would never relinquish. A service error by the visitors opened the match and Giesler struck for the first kill of the match for the early advantage. The Wildcats earned its largest lead at 24-19 behind a kill from Frazier. An erroneous attack by the Bulldogs gave UK the opening set win.
Kentucky struck for 13 kills on .320 hitting in the opening frame. Giesler led the charge with four kills, as Frazier and Armes both chipped in with three.
The second set featured two lead changes and four tied scores, before Georgia finally broke loose for a 25-21 victory to even the match going into the locker room.
UK came out firing in the third frame and quickly stole a 3-0 advantage behind a kill from O’Conner and a service ace from Armes. After a tie score at six, UK would go on an 8-4 run which was highlighted by a pair of O’Conner kills for the 14-10 edge.
O’Conner struck for five kills in the stanza on a smoking .556 hitting clip. UK also charted four blocks in the set as it limited Georgia to a mere .038 hitting clip and just 10 kills.
With the 2-1 advantage, UK quickly surged ahead for the match-clinching 25-15 fourth set victory. Three different players recorded four kills in the frame as UK posted a match-high .412 hitting percentage and 16 kills.
Georgia pulled back to within three at 10-7, but the Wildcats wasted little time in stretching the advantage to 17-11. UK scored the final three points of the set beginning with dart from Billings. Armes then teamed up with O’Conner for a rejection before combining with Billings for the match-clinching point.
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UT Volleyball Sweeps Auburn, Stays Perfect in the SEC
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Lady Vol volleyball team made it a weekend sweep of its opening SEC slate by downing Auburn, 25-15, 25-16, 25-20 on Sunday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena in front of a crowd of 801.
“It was really important to stay at home and get those wins at home,” head coach Rob Patrick said. “This is a really tough league and you have to take care of the matches at home. When you are on the road it is very tough to get wins.”
Sophomore Kelsey Robinson led Tennessee (9-2, 2-0) by recording her seventh double-double of the season, registering 10 kills and 11 digs, each of which tied for a team high. Junior DeeDee Harrison also notched double-digits in kills, as the Nashville native had 10 and hit .533 for the match.
Shealyn Kolosky, a freshman, led the team in hitting percentage and blocks, connecting on seven kills to hit .583 (7-0-12), while knocking down four Auburn attacks. Sophomore Carly Sahagian was also impressive against the Tigers, notching eight kills to go along with six digs and two blocks.
Along with Robinson, sophomore Ellen Mullins also had 11 digs. Mullins led the team by handling 22-of-44 serves and did not record an error. Mary Pollmiller had all of Tennessee’s assist, as the freshman registered 38 on the day.
Auburn opened the first set up by a kill by Camila Jersonsky to give the Tigers an early 1-0 edge, which would be their only lead of the set. The Lady Vols responded by going on a 7-2 run to put UT up 7-3, in large part to a pair of kills from Kolosky and Harrison.
AU would get as close as three, at 9-6 and 12-9, but the opening set was dominated by the Lady Vols. With the score at 15-10, UT closed out the set on
a 10-5 run to take the first point of the match. In the first set, the Big Orange hit .361, while limiting Auburn to a mere .147. Kolosky and Harrison each had five kills as Kolosky hit .714 (5-0-7).
The Lady Vols came out hot to start the second set, quickly jumping to a 9-4 advantage before the Tigers would call a timeout. UT took advantage of three Tiger miscues and a service ace by Pollmiller to get out to the lead, which it would not relinquish.
A 4-2 run got the Tigers to within three at 11-8, but UT countered with a 7-3 surge to put itself up 18-11. With the score at 21-15, the Lady Vols would go onto score four-of-the-five final points of the set behind three errors from Auburn and a Sahagian kill that ended the set and gave the Lady Vols a 2-0 lead.
Freshman Tiffany Baker and Sahagian led the offensive charge in set number two, as the duo each registered three kills apiece. The Orange and White also recorded three aces in the set as freshman Nikki Brice and Mullins had one to go along with Pollmiller’s.
The third and final set was the most highly contested as there were nine ties and seven lead changes. Defensive proved to be the difference as Tennessee limited Auburn to a hitting percentage of .079. Early on with the score tied 6-6, a 5-2 run by the Tigers forced Tennessee to take a timeout when AU was up 11-8. The team responded however, and scored the next four points off of a Robinson kill and three Auburn miscues to take the lead, 12-11.
The teams traded points until UT called another timeout when Auburn was ahead 17-15. Three quick points by the Big Orange from an AU ball handling error and a pair of Sahagian kills forced Auburn to call it’s first timeout down 18-17. Auburn would again get the lead down to one at 19-18, but could not surpass UT down the stretch, as the Lady Vols closed the matched 6-2 run.
Kills from Harrison and Cikra, plus a service ace from Sahagian made the score 22-18. The teams traded the next two points, but with the 23-20, Harrison and Robinson each had a kill to end the set and match and keep Tennessee perfect at home and in the SEC.
“In the third set Auburn picked up their game and we weren’t ready for that,” Patrick said. “After the timeout I was really excited and pleased by how the team responded and competed harder than Auburn in the end of the match. We are very, very happy with how we played this weekend in both of our matches.”
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Thomas Notches 15 Kills In 3-2 Win Over Arkansas
OXFORD, Miss. – Senior middle blocker Regina Thomas hit .560 and put down a season-high 15 kills to help lead the Rebels to victory as Ole Miss (5-5, 1-1 SEC) defeated Arkansas (9-4, 1-1 SEC) by a score of 3-2 (25-16, 18-25, 25-13, 22-25, 15-4) on Sunday.
Thomas was one of four Rebels to notch double-digit kills in the match. Kara Morgan tied a career-high with 12 kills, while Allegra Wells hit .400 on the way to 11 kills. Amanda Philpot notched a double-double on the afternoon, putting down 10 kills with 40 assists.
Ole Miss hit .265 on the afternoon and held Arkansas to .156 hitting thanks in part to a solid net defense. The Rebels out-blocked the Lady ‘Backs 10.0 to 5.0 as Courtney Cunningham, Philpot, Thomas all put down four blocks each, while Wells put down five blocks.
Ashley Veach led the back row defense with 15 digs for match-high honors.
“It was great to rebound and win today in another five set match,” said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. “We showed growth after Friday night’s loss, especially with the way we played in the fifth set. Every day we see more of the old Regina Thomas come back with regard to her physicality.
Our back row was much better today with the way they handled the first contact,” Getzin continued. “We cleaned up our first contact and good things happen when you control that first touch.”
After trading a couple of quick scores early in the first set, the Rebels got on track and pushed the lead out to 10-6 on a service ace from Kara Morgan. The ace sent the Razorbacks into a timeout to regroup, but the Rebels maintained the advantage, again forcing Arkansas into a timeout at 16-9 following back-to-back attack errors from the visiting team.
Ole Miss would continue to build on the lead from there, taking the first set 25-16.
Arkansas reversed its fortunes early in the second set, but saw an early advantage erased by a Rebel run that cut the lead to 8-7. The Rebels couldn’t overtake the Razorbacks, however, as Arkansas rallied after a timeout to push the lead back out to four. Ole Miss couldn’t get enough of a push to overtake the Lady ‘Backs as Arkansas claimed the second set 25-18.
The Rebels again put together an early run in the third set to build a quick lead on the Razorbacks, doubling up the visiting team 14-7 and forcing Arkansas into a timeout. The break in action did little to halt the Ole Miss run, though, as the Rebels continued to extend the lead to 20-11. The home team continued to press the advantage, taking the third set 25-13.
Again the fortunes reversed in the fourth set with Arkansas duplicating its early success from set two, taking the lead on Ole Miss out of the gates. The Rebels continued to fight, cutting away at the lead until tying the match at 15. Ole Miss took the lead on a Thomas kill and pushed the advantage out to 19-16 on a solo block from Wells that sent Arkansas into a timeout.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Arkansas fought back to tie the match at 22 and send the Rebels into a timeout. Ole Miss then committed three consecutive attack errors to give the Razorbacks the fourth set 25-22.
It was all Rebels in the fifth set as Ole Miss hit the floor with a renewed vigor and a relentless attack. The home team hit .600 in the set, putting down nine kills with no attack errors on the way to a dominating 15-4 win to claim the match.
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STATE TOPS SOUTH CAROLINA FOR INITIAL SEC WIN
STARKVILLE, Miss. --- Caitlin Rance and Lainey Wyman combined for 33 kills and six blocks Sunday afternoon as Mississippi State (6-5, 1-1 SEC) bested South Carolina (9-2, 0-1 SEC) in a five-set Southeastern Conference volleyball match at the Newell-Grissom Building.
The win gave the Bulldogs a split of their SEC opening weekend competition after dropping a 3-0 decision Friday night to No. 7 Florida. State has now won five of its last six matches, two of those being five-set affairs.
“It was good to close out the weekend with a win like this,” said MSU head coach Jenny Hazelwood. “We played solidly in the first two sets and then it seemed like we lost our intensity after going up 2-0. But we made some adjustments and I was proud of the way we regained our focus and to play a pretty dominant fifth set.”
The third-year MSU head coach also singled out the play of Caitlin Rance, who paced MSU in kills for the 11th time in as many matches this season. “Caitlin has the grit and the determination to get the job done,” she said. “Our opponents know that she is our go-to player, and still she consistently gets the job done for us.”
Rance finished with a match-high 17 kills and 16 digs for her team-leading fifth double-double of the year just ahead of Wyman with 16 kills. Both players recorded three blocks. Rance, from Kingwood, Texas, leads the club with 191 kills while Wyman, a freshman from Plainfield, Ill., has 119 kills and 48 total blocks.
The match was punctuated by momentum swings, as the Bulldogs claimed 25-16 and 25-17 wins for a 2-0 match lead at the break before the Gamecocks rebounded to even the score with a pair of 25-23 decisions in the third and fourth sets before State settled the issue with a solid 15-8 match-clinching win in the final frame.
Helped along by a service error and three consecutive USC attack errors, State bolted to a 7-1 lead and never trailed in taking the opening set 25-16. Rance set the pace with four kills in the frame and matched that total in the second set in State’s 25-17 win. The Bulldogs led by as many as five in the early going before USC closed to within one at 13-12. State went on a 6-1 spree to stretch the lead and with Rance’s eighth kill of the day closed the set with a 25-17 win.
A lineup shuffle by the Gamecocks triggered a shift in momentum as South Carolina battled back after the break. Seven USC players had two or more kills and the SEC East team hit at a match-best .438 clip in taking the third set 25-23. The Gamecocks led throughout the third stanza, but State rallied to take a 22-21 advantage on a Faith Steinwedell kill. The Gamecocks followed up a timeout with set-closing 4-1 run.
State hit a match-low .167 in a closely-contested fourth set that featured nine ties, the last at 16-16. USC broke that deadlock during a 4-0 run and led by as many as five before evening the match with a 25-23 win.
The Bulldogs wasted little time taking control of the deciding fifth set. Caitlin Rance blocked an attack by Bethanie Thomas for a 4-1 State advantage and the Bulldogs never trailed in locking up their initial SEC win of the campaign with a 15-8 win.
Senior middle Hannah Wilkinson recorded a career-best 13 kills with one attack error on a sizzling .706 hitting performance. Wilkinson’s strong play at the net resulted in a match-best six blocks (two solos/four assisted blocks). She now sports a league-best .524 attack percentage. Wilkinson had 20 kills, a team-best eight blocks and hit at a remarkable .731 clip in her first two SEC matches.
Sophomore setter Paris Perret also turned in a fifth double-double performance that included 50 assists and 17 digs. Freshman libero Bentley Witte set a career-best and shared match honors on defense with 19 digs. State compiled a 78-74 edge in digs against South Carolina, which entered the match as the SEC’s leader in digs.
The Bulldogs held a distinct advantage at the serving line, where the Bulldogs served up seven aces --- three by Wyman, and South Carolina lost a point 13 times on service errors. State also took a commanding edge at the net with a 13-3 lead in total team blocking.
Teresa Stenlund had 14 kills and Juliette Thevenin 12 with 11 digs to pace USC. Paige Wheeler led the Gamecocks on defense with 19 digs
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Jones Powers Volleyball Past Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Madie Jones blasted a career-high 21 kills on a .381 hitting percentage as the LSU volleyball team completed a strong SEC opening weekend with a 3-1 victory [26-24, 25-15, 13-25, 25-15] over Alabama Sunday at Foster Auditorium.
The Tigers (9-3, 2-0 SEC) have emerged with a win in 49 of their last 52 matches versus their fellow SEC Western Division opponents going back to the 2006 season and took control of sole possession of first place in the division after Ole Miss defeated Arkansas in five sets.
“It’s a huge weekend for us anytime we can go 2-0 on the road in the SEC,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Madie has been a stabilizing force for our offense but hasn’t been able to put together back-to-back matches like this before during her career. A tribute to her preparation leading into the season, and a tribute to her confidence level coming into SEC play.”
LSU racked up 61 kills compared to Alabama’s (6-6, 0-2 SEC) 36 spikes. Malorie Pardo set a balanced attack and a quartet of hitters to double figure kills. The League City, Texas, native distributed a match-high 54 assists to go along with five digs as her four-match run of consecutive doubles-doubles came to a close.
Nicole Willis hammered home 12 kills, one shy of her career-high, on a career-best .417 hitting clip and chipped in three blocks. Desiree Elliott cranked 13 kills to push her streak of double digit kills to eight straight matches, while Michele Williams belted 11 kills and recorded a match-best seven blocks.
The Tigers dominated the back row en route to an impressive 71-53 advantage in the digs department and limited Alabama to a .145 hitting ratio for the match. LSU also held an 11-7 blocking edge.
Meghan Mannari corralled 22 digs, her second-highest output in her career. Helen Boyle equaled a career-best with 20 digs, ripped a career-high three aces and added three blocks. Sam Delahoussaye and Lauren Waclawcyzk garnered 10 and nine digs, respectively. The nine scoops allowed Waclawczyk to surpass Lisa Smith (1984-87) for the No. 9 spot on the program’s all-time digs list.
“When you put together a strong blocking effort with our backcourt defense, that’s lagniappe for our team,” Flory said. “We’re going to create more scoring opportunities when our blockers do a great job of getting in-front of opposing hitters and start channeling balls to the back row. I also thought we had some key blocks at some key times. We’ve worked so much on blocking during the last month, and we’re starting to reap the benefits of all that hard work.”
The two teams went back-and-forth in the opening set with neither team pulling ahead by more than a three-point spread. Alabama grabbed a 23-20 lead after they forced Williams into consecutive hitting miscues. After LSU used its final timeout, the Tigers regrouped for a strong finishing kick and reeled off six of the last seven points to secure a 26-24 comeback victory. Willis popped three kills to fuel the spurt, one with LSU facing a set point down 24-23 and another for the set-clincher. The Tigers finished the frame and totaled 19 kills, six from Elliott.
“Nicole got a glimpse of what she could do for our offense on Friday at Ole Miss,” Flory said. “She understood what points she left on the court and came back today to manage those difficult, out of system opportunities very well. When she had a chance to terminate the ball, she did a great job of putting it on the floor. We need her to take more of the load offensively. The fact that her confidence is growing and the team’s confidence in Nicole is growing is something that can bode well for our team as we move forward into the heart of the SEC schedule.”
LSU seized control of set two after splitting the first 16 points of the stanza with the Crimson Tide. Two blocks and a kill from Jones ignited an 18-7 run as the Tigers won going away by a 25-15 margin. Willis tacked on four more kills, and the Tigers converted on 80 percent of their sideout attempts to take a two-set advantage.
Ahead 13-12 during the third set, Alabama ran off nine straight points to pull ahead by double digits. Brianne Vande Griend provided six kills off the bench, four of them during that 9-0 stretch. The Crimson Tide also was the beneficiary of six LSU hitting errors and claimed a 25-13 victory.
The Tigers fired back behind a match-best .333 hitting percentage in set four. Jones powered home seven of her career-best 21 spikes during the frame. LSU led wire-to-wire and was nearly percent with a 13-for-15 sideout efficiency. The Tigers scored the last five points of the stanza, two via a Jones kill, to compile a 25-15 triumph.
LSU returns home next Sunday for the first time since opening weekend and takes on Mississippi State for its third straight divisional tilt to start SEC play. First serve is slated for 1:30 p.m. inside the Maravich Center.
Fans are encouraged to take advantage of the Geaux Free program and receive free admission for every home match this season compliments of The Advocate.
Live video and live stats are offered through the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. In-match updates also are available via the program’s social media outlets at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball or LSU Volleyball on Facebook.
“Mississippi State is a much-improved team after winning a tough five-set match against South Carolina,” Flory said. “They’re a team that fights and likes to turn matches into defensive battles. We’ll give the players some much-needed rest to recover after three straight weekends on the road, and we’ll get back after it to hopefully be prepared for another hard-fought SEC match.”