BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team looks for its first weekend sweep of the Southeastern Conference season on Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Ole Miss.
The Tigers (8-8, 3-3 SEC) are fresh off a 3-0 victory over Mississippi State, in which LSU head coach Fran Flory picked up her 150th career win.
The Rebels pushed six-time defending SEC Western Division champion Arkansas to four games before falling 3-1 to the Razorbacks.
“Ole Miss is a very balanced team with a lot of offensive weapons. On the outsides they are very good,” said Flory. “They are always very fiesty and very well coached.”
LSU will look to outside hitters Jennifer Hampton and Meghan Bedford as well as middle blocker Meagan Davis to lead it to victory.
Bedford has racked up 20 or more kills in three of her past five matches, twice setting career highs. She is also getting it done defensively as she as recorded career-high numbers in digs twice in the past five matches as well.
Hampton is the team leader in double-doubles with seven on the year, including four in her last five. She has anchored the Tiger defense with over a 4.00 dig/game average, which leads the SEC.
Davis, a 1999 first-team All-SEC member, caught fire on Friday against the Bulldogs to post season-high numbers of 18 kills and a .567 attack percentage. She added five blocks.
“We have had a lot of good play lately, but we need to be more consistently. Our focus for this match is to come in mentally and physically prepared which is something we haven’t done the past two Sundays,” said Flory.
A win would push the Tigers to above the .500 mark for the first time since they were 3-2 early in the year. It would also give them a winning record in conference play for the first time since owning a 7-6 league mark toward the end of last season.
“We need to win at home. For us to get anything accomplished this season in the SEC, it is crucial that we protect our home court.”