BATON ROUGE, La. ? No. 23 LSU got off to a great start and fought off a late New Orleans rally as the Tigers opened up the 2007 volleyball season with a 3-0 win (30-12, 30-17, 30-28) over the Privateers on Friday in first-day action of the Mizuno Tiger Classic at the Maravich Center.
Lauren DeGirolamo had a match-high 12 kills and hit .750, part of a Tiger offense that hit .296 overall, as the Tigers (1-0) spoiled the debut of UNO first-year coach Jozsef Forman.
DeGirolamo was one of three Tigers to record double-figure kills, and the Tiger defense held UNO (0-1) to just .022 hitting.
Kyna Washington had 11 kills, and Brittnee Cooper had 10 to help the Tiger effort. Setter Maggie Lonergan had 37 assists.
Dobrilla Kovacevic led the Privateers with 10 kills, while Nikki May and Nicky Valenti each had nine digs.
The Privateers got off to a sluggish start, as LSU scored 30 of the match's first 42 points. The Tigers hit .467 in the first game and held UNO to a -.138 clip.
After dropping the second game, UNO tried to rally in the third. The Privateers were up 19-17 at one point before LSU bounced back to take a 28-26 lead. UNO's Lindsey Boler later got a kill to cut the deficit to 29-28, but LSU put it away on a Marina Skender kill.
The Privateers will continue tournament play against Saint Louis at 1 p.m. on Saturday before closing out the weekend against Louisiana-Monroe at 5 p.m.
