BATON ROUGE — Seniors Meghan Bedford, Lyndsey Benson, Meagan Davis and Addie Prewitt will play the final home match of their career on Friday when they face Southeastern Conference Western Division leader Arkansas at 7 p.m.
The LadyBacks (15-7, 10-1) are three games second-place LSU (12-8, 7-4), which is tied with defending SEC West champion Alabama.
The match is the first of two this weekend between the border-state rivals as the Tigers will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the return match on Sunday.
“There is no doubt this is a big weekend for us,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “Not just because we play Arkansas twice, but because it is the final time our seniors will play at home.”
Bedford, Benson and Davis have all been at LSU since Flory took over the program in 1998. In the four years prior to their arrival, the Tigers managed just a 57-76 (.428) including three seasons of 10 wins or fewer.
Since then, LSU is 59-56 (.513) with one winning season while being on pace for a second. Prewitt joined the group in 1999 and helped the Tigers to the winning season that year.
“This is a special group of players,” Flory said. “They came here when the program wasn?t at its best and have stuck it out and made their mark on LSU volleyball. I will be sad to see them go.”
The highlight of the careers of these players came in the 2000 SEC Tournament when the Tigers upset second-ranked Alabama en route to the championship match, which they dropped to Florida.
Davis and Bedford will lead LSU into this match, combining for six kills, five digs and two blocks per game. Davis is also hitting .384 on the year which is currently second best in school history for a single-season.
The Tigers will also look to Jennifer Hampton and Lauren Cuyler to provide offense. Hampton is the team leader in kills with 3.14 per game while Cuyler is hitting .358 and averaging 2.17 kills. She is also a dominating force at the net, averaging 1.32 blocks per game.
Arkansas counters with the best blocking team in the conference, led by freshman Jennifer Haaser. She is notching an SEC best 1.74 blocks per game while Libby Windell is also in the league?s top 10 at 1.30. Windell also puts up gaudy offensive numbers, averaging 2.80 kills while hitting .482.