BATON ROUGE — After defeating Auburn on the road last weekend, the LSU volleyball team remains on the road this week as the Tigers travel for a rematch with No. 10 Florida at the O’Connell Center on Friday at 8 p.m. (CT) as part of the Gator’s “Midnight Madness” festivities.
The Tigers will then travel to Athens, Ga., for a rematch with Georgia. LSU will face the Bulldogs on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (CT) at the Ramsey Center.
“We felt we did a good job against both of these teams the last time we played them,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We know they are going to make some adjustments to our offense and be more prepared for us, but we also think that we are more prepared and have become more productive.”
The Tigers (10-6, 2-4 SEC) will be once again be looking to snap Florida’s NCAA record 136 consecutive regular season conference match winning streak. The Gators (14-2, 6-0 SEC) have not lost a regular season Southeastern Conference match in almost 10 years.
“Anytime you play a top level opponent, it is a great opportunity,” said Flory. “We have to go out there and play like we have everything to gain and nothing to lose. We need to play hard and play physical.”
Earlier in the season, the Tigers fell to Florida at home, 30-20, 30-22, 30-25, struggling to find rhythm offensively during the match. Sophomore Kassi Mikulik posted a double-double with a team-best 12 kills and 10 digs for LSU, while junior Jelena Mijatovic led the team with 12 digs and junior Ivana Kuzmic recorded a team-best four-blocks.
Marcie Hampton led the Gators with 11 kills, while Jane Collymore recorded 12 digs and Sherri Williams posted a match-best 10 blocks for Florida.
Mijatovic leads the Tigers with 2.95 kills per game and ranks 24th in the NCAA in service aces per game at 0.61. Kuzmic leads the SEC and ranks 11th in the nation with a 1.67 blocks per game average. Senior Rachel Pittman boasts a team-best 2.92 digs per game average.
Collymore leads Florida and ranks second in the SEC with 4.89 kills per game, while also recording 3.28 digs per game. Williams leads the Gators with 1.37 blocks per game and Rachel Engel leads Florida with 4.14 digs per game.
LSU has not defeated Florida since 1991, one of the Gators’ two regular season SEC losses since 1990. Florida has dominated the league over the last 13 seasons as the Gators have won over 90 percent of their matches overall and has finished ranked in the top 15 each of those years, including seven top five finishes.
After two weeks on the road, LSU will host Kentucky next weekend. The Tigers will battle the Wildcats on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Maravich Center. The following week, LSU plays three home matches as the Tigers host Arkansas on Tuesday, Auburn on Friday and Alabama on Sunday.