Except for six burnt orange players and their bench of coaches and players eagerly cheering them on, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center radiated yellow and purple.
LSU volleyball was on the brink of winning its first set in seven matchups against No. 2 Texas, with the scoreboard reading 25-24. LSU sophomore middle blocker Jessica Jones stepped up to serve for the Tigers, ready to claim an opportunity to put themselves on the map as a threatening SEC program.
However, what followed wasn’t domination on either side. It was back-to-back unforced errors that stopped the Tigers from becoming heroes on their own turf and gave the set to the Longhorns.
The Tigers tried their best to keep themselves in the match, but they ultimately found themselves incapable of claiming the same energy that they had during that pivotal final point of the first set. Unforced errors plagued their performance, finishing with 19 of them.
The Longhorns, who finished with just 10 unforced errors, left Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with their eleventh sweep of the season and their eighteenth total win. Their hot streak continues, but as junior setter Ella Swindle emphasized recently in an interview, her team isn’t afraid of losing games.
“We’re definitely not chasing a perfect record, and our coaches talk about it all the time,” Swindle said. “A loss is not the worst thing. We’re not trying to avoid losing. We’re trying to chase adversity. We’re trying to chase a lot of the hardship now, so that we can peak at the right time.”
A perfect record might not be the team’s main objective, but it has certainly been a positive reflection of the way in which the different components of this team have been able to gel together so far this season.
On Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge, both junior outside hitter Torrey Stafford and freshman outside hitter Cari Spears logged kills in the double digits. Five other players also recorded kills throughout the matchup, further showcasing the depth within Texas’ roster.
The Tigers also had two standout players on the attacking front, senior outside hitter Nia Washington and junior outside hitter Jurnee Robinson. Their efforts helped keep LSU competitive, but ultimately, the final set scores read 27-25, 25-21 and 25-18.
Texas will next set its sights on its matchup against the Texas A&M Aggies, which will take place in College Station, Texas, on Halloween.
This rivalry matchup on the road could be an exciting one, and Texas will have the whole week to prepare for it.
