No. 8 Lady Vols cruise past LSU in 15th sweep of season
BATON ROUGE, La. - Tennessee found success on all fronts, as the eighth-ranked Lady Vols cruised to their 15th sweep of the season during a victory (25-18, 25-22, 25-18) at LSU on Friday night.
The Big Orange (22-3, 13-2 SEC) were led by an offensive attack that finished with 44 kills on .407 hitting and tallied eight aces. Defensively, UT 40 digs and 10 blocks and held the Tigers (11-14, 6-9 SEC) to a .165 hitting percentage.
Graduate student middle blocker Raeven Chase enjoyed a strong performance, posting a team-high 12 kills on a blazing .733 hitting to go along with five blocks and a dig. The graduate student duo of Morgahn Fingall and Jenaisya Moore each chipped in 10 kills. Fingall added five digs, three blocks and an ace, while Moore notched six digs, three blocks and an assist.
Sophomore middle blocker Keondreya Granberry had six kills on nine attacks and five blocks. On the back row, junior outside hitter Erykah Lovett and graduate student libero Yelianiz Torres had eight digs each. Lovett also had five kills, one ace, one assist and one block. Redshirt freshman setter Caroline Kerr rounded things out with 36 assists, six digs, one ace, one block and one kill.
Lady Vols came out on fire in the opening frame, hitting .485 and recording 16 kills and three aces to take the early advantage. A 12-5 run during the first half of the set gave UT all the momentum. Moore led the way with five kills.
Tennessee kept it going in the second period, as the Big Orange jumped out to a 14-8 lead thanks to a trio of aces and a pair of blocks. The offensive continued to roll, with Moore pacing the attack with five more kills. Defensively, UT had three blocks and held the Tigers to .167 hitting in the set.
After scoring the first four points of the final frame, the Lady Vols never looked back en route to the sweep. Firing on all cylinders on both fronts, UT had five team blocks and out hit the Tigers .391 to .080 in the third set. Chase led both offense and defense with her four kills and four blocks in the period.
Up next, Tennessee rounds out the trip with a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Aggies. First serve is set for 3 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC Network.