BATON ROUGE — After sweeping through the Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans last weekend, the LSU volleyball team returns to Baton Rouge to open the home schedule against Florida A&M on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Off to their best start since 1998, the Tigers (5-1) defeated in-state rivals Louisiana Tech, UNO and Tulane last weekend to win the Sugar Bowl Classic. Florida A&M (2-2) posted a 1-2 record in the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta last weekend. The Rattlerettes dropped matches to Georgia Tech and Miami (Ohio) before defeating Louisville, which posted a win over top 10-ranked Arizona earlier in the year.
“Florida A&M is a very good team with talented foreign athletes,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “They have a significant win this season over Louisville, which beat Arizona earlier in the year, and have played well through a tough early season schedule.
“It is important for us to get off to a good start at home,” Flory continued. “We only lost two matches at home last year and we certainly want to top that this season. I think we have a much more dynamic team and are more exciting to watch and I hope that we will have a great crowd come out to watch us play.”
The Rattlerettes are composed mainly of foreign athletes, with eight of their 12 players coming from out of the country. Comprised mostly of players from Peru and Bulgaria, Florida A&M has a well-balanced squad with six upperclassmen and six freshmen and sophomores.
“This will be a great opportunity to play a very physical team,” said Flory. “They are very experienced because their foreign players have been playing much longer than most American players. It should be a great match.”
The Tigers are led by Sugar Bowl Classic Most Valuable Player Jennifer Hampton. One of three team captains, the senior leads the team with 4.13 kills and 3.09 digs per game. Against UNO last weekend, she became just the fourth player in LSU history to record 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs.
Senior captain Katie Kubena directs the team from the setter position. An all-tournament selection last weekend, she averages 10.7 assists per game and leads the team with 11 service aces on the year. She is also second on the team with 2.39 digs a game.
Senior Lauren Cuyler, the final team captain and also an all-tournament selection last weekend, leads the team with a .350 hitting percentage, while sophomore Regan Hood leads the team in blocks. Freshmen Cara Causey and Megan Heinz have stepped in for the Tigers and performed well through the first two weeks of action. The pair has combined to average nearly two kills and one block a game.
Last season, the Tigers were scheduled to host Florida A&M, George Mason and Rice as part of the Tiger Classic on Sept. 14 and 15. Due to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, all athletic events in the Southeastern Conference, including the volleyball tournament, were cancelled.
This will be the first meeting between these two programs. LSU is 26-38 all-time against schools from the state of Florida.
The Tigers will again hit the road for the Florida State Invitational next weekend. LSU will face Brown University, in-state foe Louisiana-Lafayette and host Florida State on Sept. 20 and 21 in Tallahassee, Fla. The Tigers open the SEC slate in Baton Rouge on Sept. 25 against Arkansas at 7 p.m.