BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team looks to complete a weekend sweep in Southeastern Conference play when it faces Alabama at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (5-5, 2-1 SEC) downed Auburn on Friday night in three convincing games. Alabama (8-3, 2-1 SEC), the defending SEC Western Division champion, is coming off a 3-0 loss to Arkansas on Friday.
“Alabama is a little bit of an inexperienced team,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “They lost some key players from last year, but have reloaded with talent and have proven they can win this year.”
Prior to the loss to the LadyBacks, the Crimson Tide had won three straight, including two in conference play.
“This match is huge for us in terms of keeping up in the SEC West,” noted Flory. “For us to win the division we need to win our home matches.”
Last season, the teams met three times with the Crimson Tide taking both regular-season meetings. LSU rebounded later in the year to pull off an upset over second-seeded Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament.
The Tiger offense has carried the team since moving into conference play.
LSU is hitting .293 in its three conference matches while opponents have managed just a .185 clip.
Outside hitters Jennifer Hampton and Meghan Bedford have shouldered much of the load. Hampton is averaging a team-high 4.30 kills/game while hitting .316 in conference action. Bedford has been slightly more efficient, hitting .329 en route to 3.50 kills/game.
“Hampton and Bedford have been outstanding in the past few weeks,” said Flory. “When we cane be as efficient on the outside as we have been recently, it really gives us a lot of options offensively. It really creates match up problems for opposing teams.”
Alabama has a equally lethal duo in Jennifer Bibber and Erin Heffner. The pair combines for eight kills/game and a .300 hitting percentage.
Expected to join Hampton and Bedford in the starting line up is outside hitter Kyra Lancon (2.48 kills/game), middle blocker Meagan Davis (2.84 kills/game), middle blocker Lauren Cuyler (1.86 kills/game) and setter Katie Kubena (10.77 assists/game).