University of Missouri
LSU
Mizzou Drops Tight Match at LSU, 3-1
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Box Score
Senior Sarah Meister had a career-high 30 digs on Friday.
Baton Rouge, La. - Mizzou Volleyball dropped a 3-1 (19-25, 17-25, 25-21, 12-25) match to LSU on Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The loss moves head coach Wayne Kreklow's squad to 16-15 overall and 7-9 in Southeastern Conference play on the season. Sophomores Carly Kan (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Emily Thater (Springfield, Mo.) led Mizzou.
Kan racked up 13 kills and 12 digs to secure her SEC-leading 18th double-double of the season. Thater added 10 kills and tied her season-best with eight blocks. Defensively, Sarah Meister (San Diego, Calif.) battled against a talented crop of LSU hitters. The senior libero tallied a career-high 30 digs on Friday.
"I was proud of the way we battled after the break on the road against a really good team," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "We just weren't very efficient tonight. We got under some balls in the back row and did a good job of extending rallies, but we had trouble putting play away at the net. I thought we did some things well, so we need to focus on that and get better before playing a good Texas A&M team Sunday."
The opening set featured a seesaw affair as both teams traded points. After surrendering the first two points, Mizzou rallied on the back of Meister, who served five consecutive points to hand her team the lead. The two squads battled and exchanged the lead several times. A monster kill and an ace from freshman Kasey Reuter (Sioux City, Iowa) knotted the score at 17-17, but the home team responded with an 8-2 run to end the set and take it 25-19.
LSU jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead in the second frame. Mizzou responded with three consecutive smashes from Reuter, Thater and Regan Peltier (Nixa, Mo.) to tie the score at 5-5, but again the Bayou Bengals managed to put together a 6-0 run and build a comfortable cushion. Yet another kill from Thater sliced the deficit to four at 12-8, but that's the closest the visitors got as LSU closed out the 25-17 set victory.
Following the intermission, Coach Kreklow's team showed its resilience and came out firing on all cylinders in the third set. After an ace from freshman Alexa Armendariz (Blue Springs, Mo.), Mizzou held a 4-0 advantage. The home squad battled back twice in the set to tie it.
With the score deadlocked at 15-15, Kan took over. Following a rocket kill from senior Whitney Little (Keller, Texas), Kan roped back-to-back kills and Mizzou pushed out to an 18-15 lead. Kan recorded six kills in the third set alone and led her squad to a 25-21 set victory as the road Tigers maintained their edge to finish off the frame.
LSU responded with a dominant fourth and final set and used an 8-2 spurt at the beginning of the frame to get out in front and never look back. The home team only committed four errors and polished off the match victory with a 25-12 set win.
Mizzou will round out its final road trip of the 2014-15 campaign Sunday at No. 19 Texas A&M. The first serve in College Station, Texas, is set for 3 p.m. For all the latest on Mizzou volleyball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouVB.
