BATON ROUGE — Due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the LSU volleyball team has made changes to its schedule for the next two weekends.
The Tigers (8-1) were scheduled to travel to New Orleans for the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic. Instead, LSU will now travel to College Station, Texas, to take on Arizona State on Friday, Sept. 16 at noon before facing No. 8 Notre Dame on Sunday at noon.
LSU was scheduled to play both Arizona State and Notre Dame, along with Tulane, in the Sugar Bowl Classic. Though the Tigers will not play Tulane, the Green Wave volleyball program is now enrolled at Texas A&M and will participate in the tournament. The Aggies are scheduled to play Missouri to open Big 12 play on Friday at 6:30 p.m., but are not scheduled to play on Sunday.
In addition, LSU’s first scheduled home matches of the season, the Southeastern Conference opening weekend against South Carolina and No. 16 Tennessee, have been moved to Fayetteville, Ark. The Tigers will take on the Gamecocks on Friday, Sept. 23 at 4 p.m. before closing out the weekend against the Lady Vols on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
The matches will be played as part of doubleheaders with Arkansas. The Lady’Backs, as LSU’s travel partner in volleyball, face the same SEC teams the Tigers do each weekend. Arkansas will host No. 16 Tennessee on Friday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. after the LSU-South Carolina match. On Sunday, the Lady’Backs will face South Carolina at 1:30 p.m., following the LSU-Tennessee match.
Due to these schedule changes, LSU’s first home match has been delayed until Oct. 14 against Mississippi State. The Tigers will have been on the road for seven consecutive weekends, having played 17 road matches, to start the season before returning home to the Maravich Center in mid-October.