BATON ROUGE, La. – The Samford Volleyball Team dropped its 2022 season opener 3-0 to Louisiana State University on Friday, Aug. 26.

Lauren Deaton led the Bulldogs with eight kills and eight digs in the contest, while Gracie Lynn Butler added seven kills with seven digs and a pair of blocks. Freshman Greer Golden accounted for six kills and a pair of blocks in her Samford debut.
 
Kayla Keshock posted a team-high 25 assists to go with a pair of digs and an ace. Both Andie Salasky and Kate Morgan notched a pair of service aces in the setback.
 
After scoring the first point of the match on a kill by Deaton, LSU would on to outscore the Bulldogs 18-6 to jump out to an 18-7 advantage. After three straight points by Samford cut the score to 18-10 in favor of LSU, the Tigers would go on to outscore the Bulldogs 7-4 to claim set one 25-14.
 
The Bulldogs battled the Tigers tough in set two, with the score reading 9-8 in favor of Samford after an ace by Keshock. Following an LSU timeout, the Tigers rattled off an 8-1 run to regain momentum and take a 16-10 lead. Samford fought their way back to retake the lead at 20-19 but LSU would go on to tally six unanswered points to take the second set.
 
Samford jumped out to a 6-2 lead in set three before seeing the Tigers come back and tie it at eight-all.  The set continued to go back-and-forth, with the score reading 20-19 LSU after an ace from Morgan. The Tigers once again finished strong, notching five of the match's final six points to clinch set three and the match.
 
"LSU is very good, well-coached team," Head Coach Keylor Chan said. "Set one was a little disappointing, but in sets two and three we were right there. We were 20-all in both sets. We had a chance to push those sets, and it came down to execution. Those are things that we will address and hopefully will get better. There were some really good things happening, too. Gracie Lynn got to see what it felt like in the position she was in, and Lauren navigated the floor well. The true test will be to see how we take these lessons and how we can move them forward."
 
As a team, the Bulldogs posted 31 kills, 30 digs, and 29 assists in the match.
 
The Bulldogs will be back in action later this afternoon when they take on (RV) Rice at 5:00 p.m. (CST).
 
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