by Caroline Domecq
LSU Sports Information
This has been the year of the middle blocker for the LSU volleyball team thus far.
As if it were not enough to have All-Louisiana first-team member in senior captain Regan Hood, the Tigers added a new middle blocker to the roster this season. Ivana Kuzmic, a Split, Croatia native, joins the squad as a junior after transferring from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, where she led the Sun Belt in blocks per game last season with 1.31.
On the season, the tandem of Hood and Kuzmic has combined for 92 blocks and 220 kills through just nine matches.
In addition, Kuzmic was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week for her performance last weekend after recording 10 blocks and 12 kills against Miami (Fla.), and 9 blocks and 18 kills against SMU. This was the first Defensive Player of the Week award for LSU this season and the second since it was implemented last year. Hood was the other recipient of this award on Oct. 27, 2003, one of her many accolades in her three-plus years at LSU.
As a true freshman in 2001, after graduating from Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas, Hood played in 31 games in 18 matches and recorded a team-best 1.39 blocks per game average. In her sophomore year in 2002, she saw time in all 28 matches, leading the team with 18 block solos, 83 block assists and 101 total blocks. She also ranked second on the team with 310 kills and 3.01 kills per game.
Hood really matured as a player in her junior season, a year in which she was named second-team All-SEC and first-team All-Louisiana. She became just the fourth LSU volleyball player to lead the team in kills, blocks and hitting percentage in the same season with marks of 472, 111 and .239, respectively.
She explained her improvement as a player is in large part because of her emphasis on fundamentals of the game and watching her more experienced teammates.
“Every year as an individual I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better,” she said. “Fundamentally, I’m pretty young in the game, so when I first started playing here I didn’t know a lot of things to do, like arm swing, for example. So I think coach Fran (Flory) really emphasized the small things and that’s how I got better.
“It also helped just watching others play. My freshman year when I didn’t play, I watched the players on the court, and that helped me get better as well.”
She has also been able to be a leader through her performance on the court. “I’m not really a vocal leader; I’m more of a leader by action,” she said. “I try to give everything every time I’m out on the court, and that’s my way of leading. I’m not a very vocal person in general, so for me, the best is just showing people how things are supposed to be done.”
Flory said Hood came to LSU in need of experience, and her growth as a player is because of her work ethic and willingness to do what it takes to get to where she is today.
“Regan came in as a great athlete who needed some more experience playing volleyball,” Flory explained. “We really liked her physical stature. We liked her body type and thought she was going to be somebody who was going to mature into a great player, and she has done that.
“She’s grown into her body and matured physically along with mentally in the games. But the best thing she’s done is that she’s developed a strong competitive spirit. She practices every day as hard as she plays in every match, and that is going to lead to a much higher level of consistency in matches for her.”
Hood already has 33 blocks on the year and is averaging just less than one block per game at .97. She is tied for first with 110 kills and is hitting at a .329 clip, the third-best on the team.
Flory also praised the competitive spirit of the team’s other middle blocker, Kuzmic.
“On the court, she’s a difference maker, and we’ve known that from the beginning,” Flory commented.
Before moving to the United States, Kuzmic served as a member of the Croatian Youth National Team from 1999-2001. She was named the best blocker at the 1999 Youth World Championships after a seventh-place finish by Croatia.
But volleyball is different in Croatia than in America. There you either play professionally or not at all. And it has always been Kuzmic’s dream to attend art school, which is why she said she chose to leave Croatia and attend the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
“I moved from Croatia because I couldn’t play volleyball and go to school,” Kuzmic said. “It’s a little bit different there than it is here. You can just play professionally or you can go to school. And I wanted really badly to go to art school, which are not that good back home. So I decided to come here to the States.”
Current LSU assistant coach Danijela Tomic was then an assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock, and her ability to speak Croatian in communicating with Kuzmic helped in her decision to enroll there.
“I got a few offers from schools that were pretty good, but Danijela contacted me from Arkansas-Little Rock, and she spoke Croatian, which was kind of helpful. So that is why I decided to go there,” Kuzmic commented.
In her freshman season at Arkansas-Little Rock, she was a unanimous first-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection and was named Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year. Her 2.16 blocks per game average led the NCAA Division I.
She put up two 15-block games in a single season that year, both against UL-Lafayette. She also finished the season with 287 kills and 25 aces. In her sophomore year, she was a second-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection and again led the Sun Belt in blocks per game with 1.31.
According to Kuzmic, it was mostly academics that shaped her decision to transfer to LSU for her junior season.
“I came here mostly because of school,” she said. “The art school here is really good, much better than at Arkansas-Little Rock, and Danijela was here and said if I transferred here they could help me.”
Kuzmic has had an instant impact on the volleyball team in performance and in presence, according to Flory
“She just brings a different level of maturity to the game and as a person,” she explained. “Any time you’re out of your home country basically by yourself, you are forced to grow and mature very quickly.
“So her ability to take care of herself and to truly understand what an opportunity this is to be here and have the chance to play here with her education paid for, she’s very thankful for that and she shows that every day in practice. She has a golden opportunity and she’s going to make the most of it. And she’sgoing to help everybody realize that this is a golden opportunity for them as well.”
Outside hitter Kassi Mikulik said she has definitely felt Kuzmic’s presence.
“She has put up a big block, a wall-we call her ‘the wall.’ And every time we’re down for not being able to do something, she’s there to pick us up,” Mikulik said of Kuzmic.
Kuzmic currently leads the team in blocks with 18 and blocks per game with 1.74. She is also tied for most kills with 110 and highest hitting percentage with a .333 clip.
Despite those lofty stats, she still believes it is the improved teamwork that has helped the team to its current 8-1 record, the highest starting record since 1991, where the team earned 12 wins before suffering its first loss.
“I don’t think I have had that big of an impact, it’s just a good team,” she said. “It’s not about me. It’s not an individual sport, it’s a team sport.”
Having a dominant middle is critical to a team’s success. And according to Flory, the fact that she has two is a huge advantage.
“Any great team in the country has a middle who is a dominant player,” Flory said. “You cannot be successful at any level of NCAA volleyball if you don’t have a dominant player in the middle. “The fact that we have two that can affect the game on every play, offensively or defensively, is a huge asset to us. Some teams have middles who are just great hitters or just great blockers, and having those two be both great middle blockers and middle hitters, that they’re as effective offensively as they are defensively, that’s a great balance and balance is the key to success.”
As a coach, Flory explained that she has typically built her teams around the middle position and this team is no exception.
LSU’s two middle blockers have fulfilled their role tremendously, according to Mikulik.
“They are the ones who set the tone on the court,” she commented. “We’re always giving the ball to them. As outside hitters, we are the second option. Middles are our first option because they can see the whole court.
“And when I’m in the back row playing defense, I don’t have to worry about them letting balls go in the seam because they are always there to cover the hits.”
If the performance of these two middle blockers is any indication of the success the team will encounter this year, then the Tigers are on the right track.
Coming off of a disappointing season last year here in which the Tigers went 11-19 (6-10 SEC), Hood said she has already noticed improvement and predict the team will have a much better outcome this year.
“We’ve already shown an improvement,” she commented. “I really think we’re going to win the SEC West this year. I’m pretty confident that if we keep working hard in the gym, we can accomplish that goal and get some big wins.”
At 8-1 with a number of big wins already under its belt, the LSU volleyball team could be headed in that direction with a possible trip to the NCAA Tournament, a trip the team has not made since 1992 under the tutelage of coach Scott Luster.
But Flory said her team is ready.
“This team prepared to be champions and they prepared to excel,” she said. “They prepared to be the best that they can be. They are very willing to listen and do the things we know as a staff will make us better and lead to success. And when everybody’s headed in the right direction, good things happen.”
Hood and Kuzmic lead the Tigers into their first SEC action of the year this weekend at home, playing both Georgia at 7 p.m. Friday and Florida at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.