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Sept. 26, 2008

Box Score

Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. - The University of Tennessee volleyball team (7-5, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) dropped its first SEC match of the season Friday evening, falling in four sets, 25-22, 18-25, 20-25, 23-25, to LSU (6-4, 1-2 SEC) in front of 965 boisterous fans at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

"We played hard tonight but were unable to string together long stretches of competitive play," UT Head Coach Rob Patrick said. "I give LSU a lot of credit for taking our best punch early and being able to respond. They simply played at a level higher than us for most of the match.

"Another reason LSU had more success as the match went on was because of the fact that we moved away from our game plan. Part of the reason that happened is because of our lack of experience, but that is something that we will continue to work on and get better at as the season goes on. All in all, I am excited about how hard we played tonight. If we bring this much energy to the rest of our practices and matches, the rest will take care of itself."

For the ninth time in the first 12 contests this season, sophomore Nikki Fowler led all UT performers with 19 kills in the loss. The Dallas, Texas, native also hit at a solid .333 clip in the match with just four errors on a squad-best 45 swings.

Junior libero Chloe Goldman continued her terrific play on the defensive end, tallying a team-high 17 digs, while fellow classmate Kylie Marshall reached double-digits as well with 10 of her own. Meanwhile, freshman Alyssa Hilby led the blocking effort for the seventh consecutive contest, notching four putbacks in the defeat.

Paced by seven kills by Fowler and a 10-dig effort by Goldman, the Big Orange was able to jump out to a quick lead, winning the opening frame, 25-22. The Lady Vols came out of the corner swinging, racing out to a quick 4-1 advantage behind a pair of kills by senior Milan Clarke and two unforced errors by LSU. The Tigers would bounce back from their slow start, however, eventually taking a 9-8 lead after a kill by Lauren DeGirolamo.

Just three plays later, a smash by senior Mindy Flynn deadlocked the set at 10, but LSU answered immediately with scores on three consecutive plays to take a 13-10 lead. The Big Orange would move within one following a blast by Fowler and an ace by junior Farren Powe before a putaway by LSU's Angela Bensend made it 14-12.

At that point, the Orange and White went on a three-score spree with a kill by Marshall sandwiched between a pair of Tiger miscues to take a lead it would never relinquish. Although LSU would tie the set up three times before the end of the frame, UT never let them move back out in front.

With the score tied at 17-17, a four-point streak gave the Big Orange a commanding lead, but LSU was not quite finished, answering with a trio of scores of their won to cut its deficit to one at 21-20 and force Patrick to burn his first timeout of the game to calm his troops.

The tactic worked beautifully as Tennessee got a Tiger serve landed long straight out of the break. Powe followed with a stuff block on the following play to make it 23-20 in favor of UT, which led to a timeout by LSU Head Coach Fran Flory. Although the Tigers scored on the first play after the short recess, the two squads traded the final three points to account for the final score.

Whatever momentum Tennessee gained with the win in the first set quickly disappeared at the beginning of the second, as LSU established a 9-2 lead, en route to a 25-18 victory that sent the two teams into their respective locker rooms with the match tied at one set each. The Big Orange was unable to establish anything offensively, hitting just .028 in the frame and getting just nine total kills. Despite the struggles, the Lady Vols continued to fight but were unable to get any closer than four scores at any point in the set.

Although the Orange and White got its offense back on track in the third set, LSU weathered the UT attack to take the frame, 25-20. As a team, the Lady Vols hit at an impressive .357 percentage in the game with 12 kills and just two errors on 28 total swings. Unfortunately, the Tigers did them one better, smashing out 20 kills in the set and hitting .417 overall.

Unlike the first two frames, neither squad was able to establish much of a lead early on. With the scoreboard reading 13-12 in favor of the Big Orange following a sharp block by Fowler and Hilby, LSU made the first sustained run of the set, winning the next three points and scoring on five of the next six plays to take a 17-14 advantage and prompt Patrick to utilize his first timeout.

Once again, the short pause did the trick and halted the Tiger's momentum as UT got a kill by Powe and an ace by Fowler to cut the lead to one. Although Kyna Washington stopped the spree with a kill, Powe and Clarke followed with putaways of their own to tie the set at 18-18. Four plays and three Lady Vol unforced errors later, however, LSU found itself up by four at 22-18. It closed the set out shortly thereafter with a smash by Brittnee Cooper doing the honors.

The story stayed the same in the fourth frame, with LSU using a late run to take the set, 25-23, and the match three sets to one. After a kill by an attack by Fowler hit hands at the net and landed long to tie the score at 17-17, the Tigers proceeded to take five of the next six scores to jump ahead 22-18.

Although a blast from the back row by Fowler and a stuff block by Hilby and Marshall brought UT back within two, another three-point run by LSU put it ahead 24-21 and effectively sealed the Orange and White's fate. After errors by DeGirolamo and Tania Schatow gave Tennessee a little glimmer of hope, Cooper ended the match with a hard kill straight down off the UT block.

The Lady Vols will look to return to the win column this Sunday when they travel to Athens, Ga., for a 1:30 p.m. showdown with Georgia (7-7, 0-3 SEC) at the Ramsey Student Center. Following that contest, UT will return to Rocky Top to take on border-rival Kentucky at 7 p.m. in Thompson-Boling Arena on Wed., Oct. 1.