BATON ROUGE — After winning the Mean Green Classic last weekend, the LSU volleyball team will open Southeastern Conference play on Wednesday against defending Western Division champion Arkansas in the Maravich Center at 7 p.m.
The Tigers (5-7) went 2-1 in the Mean Green Classic last weekend, rebounding from a loss to Oral Roberts to defeat UTEP and North Texas to win the tournament. Arkansas (7-4) has won two straight and six of its last seven matches.
“This is an important match for us being that it’s a divisional match,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Arkansas is a young team like us. They probably return some more experienced players than we do, but they have freshmen in some key positions.
“We will have to be efficient and take care of the ball. If we do that, we should create some opportunities and hopefully we can take advantage of enough of those opportunities to win the match.”
Last season the Tigers finished second in the SEC Western Division for the second straight season, their best back-to-back league placing since the 1992-93 seasons. LSU was picked to finish third by the conference’s coaches in the preseason poll behind Arkansas and Alabama. The Lady’Backs have won the Western Division eight of the last nine years.
This is the second-straight year the Tigers have opened the SEC slate against Arkansas. Last season, LSU was a 3-1 loser to the Lady’Backs at home. The Tigers have split their last two conference openers and are 10-9 all-time when opening league play.
“Arkansas is traditionally a physical team,” Flory said. “They are a good blocking team that is offensive minded. We will have to play well defensively and control the ball while also having a sound offensive game to be successful.”
At the Mean Green Classic last weekend, junior Regan Hood was named the tournament’s MVP, while sophomore Megan Heinz was named to the all-tournament team. Hood averaged 4.91 kills per game with a career-high 25 kills against Oral Roberts. In addition, she recorded 13 blocks, including eight block solos, and 25 digs. Heinz led the team with 16 blocks and averaged 3.18 kills per game.
The match will be the first of three for the Tigers this week as LSU will host South Carolina on Friday at 7 p.m. The Gamecocks (6-6) are receiving votes in the AVCA/USA Today Coaches poll and have won two straight and four of their last five matches.
On Sunday the Tigers will host Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. The Wildcats (8-4) have lost three of their last four matches after winning seven straight.