BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team received its second National Letter of Intent of the fall with the signing of Croatian Junior National team member Marina Skender, as announced by Tiger head coach Fran Flory on Thursday.
The 5-11 outside hitter from Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, helped lead the junior national team to a fourth place finish at the European Junior Championships in the Netherlands earlier this year and qualify for the World Junior Championships next year.
“Marina has played with and against some of the best young players in the world,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “She will provide our team with additional international experience. Her generation is one of the most successful in Croatian volleyball history.
“In addition to her outstanding volleyball credentials, Marina is also a great student and a great person,” Flory continued. “We are excited that she is now a part of our Tiger family.”
A member of Volleyball Club “Zagreb”, Skender also started for the Youth National Team that won the 2003 European Youth Championships in Croatia. Her team lost only one game during the tournament, that coming to Russia in the semifinal match. In addition, that team placed fifth at the World Youth Championship in Poland.
The daughter of Mira and Damir, earlier this year, Skender started for Volleyball Club “Mladost” as they won the Croatian Junior Championships.
Skender will be the second Croatian player for the Tigers, joining current junior middle blocker Ivana Kuzmic. Kuzmic, a native of Split, Croatia, is a transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock who also played for Volleyball Club “Mladost”. LSU also boasts a pair of Serbian players, junior outside hitter Jelena Mijatovic and freshman middle blocker Mina Spasojevic.