GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For the third time this season, the LSU volleyball team will take on a top 5-ranked team as they Tigers travel to battle the third-ranked Gators of Florida in the O’Connell Center at 12:30 p.m.
LSU enters the contest at 11-15 overall and 6-8 in Southeastern Conference play. No. 3 Florida stands at 25-1 on the year and 13-0 in league play. The Gators have won an NCAA record 73 consecutive games, having not lost a game since their second match of the season, a 3-1 win over nationally ranked Kansas State.
For the Tigers, it is their third match of the season against a top-5 program, after LSU took on No. 2 Hawai’i and now No. 5 Kansas State earlier in the season. The Tigers have also played No. 10 Nebraska and No. 15 Colorado State this season, so the third-ranked Gators will mark the fifth nationally ranked team LSU will play this year.
“The reason we played such a difficult non-conference schedule this season was so our players would be ready to take on a team of the caliber of Florida when it came time to play them in the SEC,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We put our team up against some of the best teams in the country so that they would have experience against top caliber opponents and know what to expect going into a match like this.”
Last season the Tigers were the only team to take a game from the Gators in regular season SEC play. Despite losing the match, LSU broke Florida’s 31-game home conference winning streak.
LSU is led by junior Regan Hood. The Carrollton, Texas native averages a team-best 4.39 kills per game and leads the Tigers with 29 block solos and 134 total blocks. With 434 kills this season, she has recorded the most single- season kills at LSU since the 1996 season.
Sophomore Megan Heinz leads the Tigers with 1.27 blocks per game, while freshman Lauren Leaumont leads the team with 2.42 digs per game.
Following the Florida match, LSU will travel to Arkansas for a rematch with the Lady’Backs. The Tigers fell to Arkansas, 3-1, in Baton Rouge in the SEC opener in September.