BATON ROUGE, La. | LSU's duo of Nia Washington (16) and Jurnee Robinson (15) combined for 31 kills as the Tigers defeated South Alabama 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-15) Saturday night at Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Robinson also added 12 digs, two aces and three blocks for LSU (1-1), while Washington hit .414 and had a pair of aces as well. 

Dalayla Blackewell and Cambria Gaier each had five kills, while the latter also added four aces for South Alabama (0-2).

Offensively, LSU hit .323 (45-15-93), while South Alabama was limited to a .089 (26-18-90) hitting percentage.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the match: "LSU was definitely feeling really good tonight at their house. We battled the first two sets and the third set kind of got away from us. I think there are some things that we know we can do better. I'm really proud of my team because they fought the whole time. We're going to have to pick it up though when we face teams the caliber of LSU. All and all, we learned a lot about ourselves this weekend. We played against some high-level teams and were able to see what it takes to compete at that level against those squads."

How It Happened 
Set 1 – LSU 25, South Alabama 21
•    KEY MOMENT: With South leading by five, LSU took control of the set with a 9-0 run to grab a four-point lead
•    South Alabama opened the match with six unanswered points, highlighted by back-to-back aces by Gaier
•    Jags led 13-8 after a kill by Sarah Gooch, but LSU answered back with a 9-0 run to take its first lead of the match
•    Washington (4) and Robinson (2) combined for six kills each during the run which saw the Tigers take a 17-13 lead
•    South narrowed the deficit to one (19-18) after a pair of LSU attack errors, but the Tigers quickly regained momentum en route to the four-point set win (25-21)
•    Washington (7) and Robinson (6) led the way with 13 kills in the set

Set 2 – LSU 25, South Alabama 21
•    KEY MOMENT: Tied at 20-20, Robinson gave the Tigers the lead for good with a kill and an ace, and Angelina Lee later slammed home a pair of kills to seal the set win
•    LSU led 15-12, but over the next four points South battled back to take the lead 16-15 after a kill by Eva Dittmar
•    There were nine ties and three lead changes, the most in either category in the second set
•    Robinson had seven kills in the frame for LSU and hit .500
•    Both teams posted their best individual-set hitting percentages in the frame: LSU (.452), South Alabama (.346)

Set 3 – LSU 25, South Alabama 15
•    KEY MOMENT: LSU broke a 4-4 tie early in the third set with five-unanswered points as Washington capped off the scoring spurt with her 12th kill of the match
•    The Tigers led the set by as much as 11 two times, each after kills by Washington 
•    Gooch had back-to-back solo blocks early in the frame to tie the set up
•    Washington led the Tigers offensively in the set with six kills on seven attempts and no attack errors for a .857 percentage

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked the 10th in the all-time series and the first between the two programs since the 1998 season
•    The match marked the 116th time South has faced an opponent from the SEC
•    The Jaguars are also scheduled to face SEC members Mississippi State (9/16) and Auburn (9/20)
•    Wilson had her streak of 19-straight matches with 15 or more digs snapped as she was limited to five in the set
•    The four aces by Gaier were a career best for the freshman

Up Next
•    South Alabama will return to action next weekend with three matches in Milwaukee, Wis. The Jaguars will open up the road trip on Friday at 4 p.m. (CT) versus Central Michigan.

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