Bama Volleyball Falls in Five at No. 20 LSU
10/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
BATON ROUGE, La.- The University of Alabama volleyball team fell in a lengthy five game match tonight to the 20th ranked Tigers of LSU in front of a boisterous crowd at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Long rallies and scrappy defense defined tonight’s match as the two teams battled point for point in a fight for first place in the Western Division of the Southeastern conference. Alabama and LSU traded kills and digs for over two and a half hours before the Tigers took the match, 33-31, 23-30, 35-33, 21-30, 15-7.
“The difference in the match was LSU sided out at 61 percent and we sided out at 53 percent,” said Alabama head coach Judy Green. “If you look at the games we won we are the team that side outs the best.”
Game one saw six tied scores and seven lead changes before Alabama closed out the game off an LSU error. The Tide took its second lead of the night at 22-21 and went on a five point run to take a 27-23 lead. The Tigers rallied back and posted back-to-back kills to take its second lead of the night at 31-30. Alabama fought back as Fuentez tallied two consecutive kills to give the Tide its second game point at 32-31. The Tide closed out game one on an LSU error.
Alabama took an early four point lead in game two but could not hold on as the Tigers climbed back and tied game two at 18. The two teams fought for the lead the next four points but LSU took its final lead of the game, forcing a Tide timeout at 22-20. Alabama took its final timeout trailing 23-27 and the LSU offense took over and clinched the game.
Game three saw a different start as LSU jumped out to an early lead, forcing Alabama to come from behind. The Tide proved it was up to the challenge and, after trailing by as many as five points early in the game, Alabama slowly inched its way back and took its first lead at 27-26. No stranger to long games, Alabama used its past experiences and outlasted LSU in game four. Freshman Alyssa Meuth made her first appearance late in the game and posted two significant kills from the outside to give Alabama a 32-31 lead. The game saw two more ties before LSU made consecutive errors to end the game.
Alabama got off to a slow start in game four and found itself trailing by as many as eight points en route to a, 30-21, LSU victory. The Tide found its rhythm late in the game but could not overcome the defecit and the Tigers tied the match 2-2.
“I thought our team did a real nice job of coming in here and competing and weren’t affected by the surroundings,” said Green. “This was an opportunity and it is tough to beat a top 20 team on the road in their own gym. LSU is a really good team and now we have to turn our focus to Ole Miss on Sunday.”
The Crimson Tide falls to 8-8 overall and 5-2 in the SEC with tonight’s loss and heads to Ole Miss to face the Rebels at 1:30 p.m. at the Gillom Sports Center.
-UA-
