BATON ROUGE — Having won two matches in a row and three of their last four, the LSU volleyball team hits the road for a pair of Southeastern Conference matches this weekend against South Carolina and nationally ranked Tennessee.
The Tigers (13-9, 5-7 SEC) will take on the Gamecocks (11-10, 4-8 SEC) on Friday at 6 p.m. (CST) in the Volleyball Competition Facility in Columbia, S.C. LSU will then face the No. 15 Lady Vols (22-2, 11-1 SEC) on Sunday at 1 p.m. (CST) at the Stokley Athletics Center in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We are coming off a weekend when we were very successful and we are gaining confidence each match,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “I think we are creating opportunities for some new people after we rejuvenated our lineup last week. We are excited to play again. We have a higher level of enthusiasm and we still think we have something to prove.”
As the SEC schedule winds down, the Tigers currently rank third in the Western Division and stand in sixth overall. LSU is just one game behind Alabama in fifth place overall, but is also just two games ahead of ninth place Auburn and Kentucky.
With the SEC Tournament taking only the top eight teams in the league, the Tigers need to win two of the last four matches to guarantee themselves aspot in the tournament, since LSU currently holds the tiebreaker over both Auburn and Kentucky. South Carolina is currently in a tie for seventh, while the Lady Vols are firmly in second overall, having lost just one SEC match this season.
Junior Jelena Mijatovic leads the Tigers with 3.34 kills per game and ranks fifth in the NCAA in service aces per game at 0.70. Junior Ivana Kuzmic leads the SEC and ranks 16th in the nation with a 1.58 blocks per game average. Senior Rachel Pittman boasts a team-best 3.08 digs per game average.
Shonda Cole leads South Carolina with 3.92 kills per game, while also averaging 0.99 blocks per game. Lauren Ford leads the Gamecocks with 1.38 blocks per game, followed by Nicole Miller at 1.09. Sarah Morgan records a team-best 2.80 digs per game for South Carolina this season.
LSU is 7-11 all time against South Carolina, including a 3-3 record in Columbia. Last season, the Tigers posted their first win over the Gamecocks in Columbia since 1983.
“This is a very important match for us against South Carolina,” said Flory. “They are a very athletic team. They have been up and down during the season a lot like us, but they are dangerous because of their athleticism and can take off at anytime.”
Kristen Andre leads Tennessee with 3.97 kills per game, while Yuliya Stoyanova, Michelle Piantadosi and Amy Morris are each averaging over three kills per game. Sarah Blum leads the Lady Vols with 1.22 blocks per game, followed by Andre with 1.05. Tennessee’s leader in digs per game is Morris at 3.43, followed by Annie Sadowski with 3.11.
LSU is 24-14 all time against Tennessee, including an 8-8 record in Knoxville. The Tigers are 3-1 in the last four meetings, but the one loss was on the road.
“With Tennessee we get a chance to take a match off a nationally ranked team,” said Flory. “We think we match up well against them athletically, but they are playing with such a high level of confidence because of how well they have done this season.”
LSU will close out the SEC regular season next weekend as the Tigers travel to Fayetteville, Ark.. for a rematch with Arkansas, followed by a trip to Oxford, Miss., for a rematch with Ole Miss. The SEC Tournament will start the following Friday in Gainesville, Fla.