BATON ROUGE — For just the second time in nine weeks this season, the LSU volleyball team will be home to face Auburn and Alabama this weekend beginning with a match against AU on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center.
Fans can watch the match through live stats on LSU Sports Interactive at www.LSUsports.net on the live statistics page under the multimedia link. The purple and gold will close out the action this weekend on Sunday against Alabama at 1:30 p.m. in the Maravich Center.
The Tigers (16-5, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) defeated Auburn (8-10, 2-8 SEC) in Auburn three weeks ago, 3-1. LSU is currently in third place in the SEC West, two games behind Alabama and a game behind Arkansas. The Crimson Tide and Lady Razorbacks will face off on Friday with LSU able to gain ground on one of the teams with a win. Auburn is currently in 10th place in the SEC standings, one game out of qualifying position for the SEC Tournament.
“We are thrilled to be back at home,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We hope that the LSU fans that came out to see us the last time we were at home will come back this weekend. They really made a big difference for us in the matches.”
Of the two Tiger teams, LSU leads in every offensive category, posting 16.0 kills per game to 14.0 for Auburn. The purple and gold also average 14.6 assists per game and 1.9 service aces per game, ahead of 12.9 and 1.5 respectively for AU.
Defensively, LSU posts 3.0 blocks per game to 2.4 for Auburn. The only statistical category Auburn leads the purple and gold is in digs per game as AU averages 15.3, compared to 14.7 for LSU.
“Auburn is healthy for the first time all season,” said Flory. “They are fighting for a spot in the SEC Tournament and will certainly come in playing really hard. We will have to play very well and be efficient. We need to dictate the pace of the match. We were successful with that against Georgia last weekend and hopefully we can continue that trend this week.”
In the first match-up with Auburn this season, LSU won 30-28, 30-26, 28-30, 30-16, in the Student Activities Center. Freshman Kyna Washington led the match with 17 kills and four service aces, followed by junior Ivana Kuzmic with 11 kills and six blocks. Junior Kassi Mikulik led the match with 18 digs, while Heather Fierce and Daniela Romero combined for 27 and 15 assists respectively.
Auburn was led by Jennifer Amobi with 16 kills and Whitney Jacob with 15. Bailey Veit led AU with 16 digs, while Julie Bosler led the match with seven blocks. Alison Jacobs led the match with 45 assists for Auburn.
Senior Jelena Mijatovic leads LSU and ranks second in the SEC with 4.19 kills per game. In addition, she ranks in the top 15 in the NCAA in service aces per game with 0.65. In addition, Kuzmic leads the SEC and ranks in the fifth in the nation in blocks per game at 1.72. She has posted three double-figure block matches this season.
Mikulik leads the purple and gold and ranks in the top 10 in the league in digs per game at 3.58. While Fierce leads the team with 8.73 assists per game for the season, Romero leads LSU in assists per game in SEC play at 7.94.
For Auburn, Amobi leads the team with 3.98 kills per game. Bosler leads AU with 1.05 blocks per game and Veit has a team-best 4.38 digs per game.
LSU leads the all-time series with Auburn, 25-11, including a 14-4 mark in Baton Rouge. The purple and gold, however, have won eight straight and nine of the last 10.