BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team travels to Orlando, Fla., this weekend for the SEC/Big East Conference Challenge hosted by the University of Florida.
The Tigers (15-10) will face 25th-ranked Notre Dame (21-5), which claimed the Big East title this season, on Friday at noon EST and then Virginia Tech, who was conference runner up, on Saturday at noon EST.
The SEC Champion Gators are the other team representing the conference in the round-robin event. Florida won the SEC Tournament championship this past weekend with wins over Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas.
The Crimson Tide upset LSU, which finished fourth in the league, in a five-game first-round battle.
“We set this schedule up so we would have a chance to play a ranked team in the last weekend of the season,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “Notre Dame is in the 20 to 25 range which is perfect for us.
“In scheduling this year, I set it up for us to be able to gain some national recognition and play some nationally ranked teams. We did that early in the year with Colorado State and Baylor and we’re doing at the end of the year with Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.”
First-team All-SEC middle blocker Meagan Davis leads the Tigers into the weekend hitting a team-best .374 while averaging 2.90 kills and 1.20 blocks per game.
The Tigers offensive go-to player is second-team All-SEC outside hitter Jennifer Hampton who leads the team with 3.24 kills per game while averaging just under 10 attempts per game. She is also the top defensive player on the team at 3.17 digs per game.
Big East Player of the Year Malinda Goralski leads the Irish into action with her 3.25 kills per game and .480 hitting percentage. She also averaged a block a game.
Big East Setter of the year Kristen Kinder runs the offense with 11.85 assists per game while also contributing heavily on defense to the tune of 2.48 digs per game.
“Notre Dame is a good, physical team. We are going to have to play very well and return to a high-level of offensive efficiency this weekend. Our team will have to fight and really be tough this weekend for us to have any type of success,” Flory said.