BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team will play at home for the first time this season this weekend as they host Arkansas State, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas Tech in the Tiger Classic.
“I think this is another opportunity for us to get in sync,” said LSU coach Fran Flory, whose team is coming off a 1-2 performance in last week’s Sugar Bowl Classic. “We have to establish some offensive consistency and do a better job of running our system and becoming consistent in it.”
The tournament has a round-robin format that will pair LSU (3-3) with each of the three teams in the tournament. On Friday, the Tigers will meet Arkansas State, a 1999 NCAA Tournament team, at 7 p.m. in the night cap. Texas Tech and Southeastern Louisiana will face off in the early match at 5 p.m.
“The key for us in this tournament is the Arkansas State match,” said Flory. “We haven’t started well in our first two tournaments. We have been sporadic in those matches. For us to be successful, we need to maintain our focus through the whole match.”
Saturday’s action features four matches beginning at 10 a.m. with each team participating in two. Arkansas State and Texas Tech square off in the 10 a.m. match while LSU plays Southeastern Louisiana at 12 p.m. Following an afternoon break, the teams resume action at 5 p.m. with Arkansas State meeting Southeastern Louisiana before LSU faces Texas Tech at 7 p.m.
“It is going to be a good balance of teams. Arkansas State is a dangerous team that has a good coach and will be very prepared. Southeastern Louisiana is a scrappy team that can give us trouble if we aren’t consistent offensively. Texas Tech is a very good team that has only one loss this year and has beaten some SEC teams,” said Flory of the Tigers opponents in the tournament.
Leading the Tigers into the tournament will be middle blocker Meagan Davis and outside hitter Jennifer Hampton who are both coming off All-Tournament team performances in the Sugar Bowl Classic. Davis is the team’s leading hitter in terms of kills with over 3.5/game and attack percentage, hitting .420 on the year. Hampton is second on the squad in kills with 2.7/game while leading teh Tigers in digs with 2.8/game.
“We have asked the players to hold each other a little more accountable this week to raise us to a higher level. They are doing a good job, but we need to take another step this weekend. We’ll find out if they can do that on Friday.”