LSU volleyball gets 1000th win in program history

The LSU volleyball team split a pair of matches Friday on the first day of the Penn State Classic.

After losing to Iowa State 25-16, 22-25, 18-25, 23-25, the Tigers (2-2) rebounded with a 26-24, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22 victory over Oregon State.

It was the 1000th win in LSU volleyball history. LSU will be back in action Saturday night when it takes on No. 17 Penn State to close out the tournament at 7 p.m. CT.

“We showed much better composure,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said . “We found a good combination of people that fed off of each other and we didn’t get frantic. We just had a different level of confidence about us. That was a must-win match.”

Kylie Deberg led LSU with a double-double, tallying 19 kills and 14 digs. Hannah Brister added 10 kills and fell just short of her own double-double with 9 digs. Ella Larkin earned her first career start and as the Tigers’ setter, she distributed the ball to playmakers around the court with 45 assists and 12 digs for her first career double-double. She also added five blocks.

“I thought Deberg did a good job and you have to credit Larkin for coming in a running the show for us,” said Flory. “She did a great job and showed great experience.”

Ellie Echter was also pivotal for the Tigers, especially in the fourth set when the teams were tied eight times. She finished the match with 6 kills. Anita Anwusi provided a spark off the bench for LSU with six kills and four blocks.

Maddie Goings led the Beavers with 19 kills and Lindsey Schell added 16. Izzi Szulczewski tallied a match-high 52 assists and Grace Massey had a match-high 24 digs.

The Tigers limited their service errors to 5 after recording 14 in early loss to Iowa State.

“We have to be more resilient and more focused,” Flory said after the loss to the Cyclones. “We’ve done a great job of following the game plan in the first set of every match. Then we try to do too much instead of continuing to execute the game plan. We have to be more disciplined in our approach to the game and understand that if it’s working, it’s working, and we don’t need to try and do more.”

Deberg was dominant for LSU, tallying a match-high 22 kills, her first 20+ kill match at LSU. Brister was productive and efficient for the Tigers with 14 kills, hitting .370. Karli Rose tallied 46 assists. Raigen Cianciulli led the way with 10 digs, but Taylor Bannister and Larkin both added 10 too.

Candelaria Herrera was a force at the net for Iowa State, recording 8 blocks and adding 8 kills. Annie Hatch led ISU with 11 kills and Eleanor Holthaus had a match-high 15 digs.

LSU had 6 service aces to Iowa State’s 2, but the Tigers recorded 16 service errors as a team.