BATON ROUGE — For the fourth time this season, LSU right side hitter Marina Skender was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week after the Tigers went 2-0 and won their first SEC Western Division Championship in school history.
The native of Zagreb, Croatia, led the Tigers to a 3-0 win over Arkansas on Wednesday, only the fourth win over the Lady Razorbacks in school history and the first 3-0 sweep of Arkansas since 2001. On Friday, LSU knocked off Kentucky in five games to close out the regular season before a Wildcat win over the Lady Razorbacks on Sunday gave the Tigers a share of the SEC West title.
Recorded 12 kills in each of LSU’s matches on the week, while posting a .370 hitting percentage against Arkansas. She was also one dig away from a double-double against the Lady Razorbacks with nine digs. Against Kentucky, she recorded a career-best 21 digs for her fourth career double-double.
In addition, she led the team in service aces and ranked second on the team in blocks. She also posted the third most kills, kills per game, digs and hit at the third-best clip for the week.
This is the fourth SEC Freshman of the Week honor for her this season and the fifth SEC Freshman of the Week honor for the Tigers this year. On the season, LSU athletes have been honored by the conference a total of 10 times, the most of any school in the league, including two SEC Player of the Week honors and three SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
The Tigers will begin play in the SEC Tournament this weekend against Alabama. LSU will take on the Crimson Tide at 7:30 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Ala. If the Tigers win, they will face the winner of the Tennessee-Mississippi State match on Saturday at 6 p.m. The championship match is on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and will be broadcast in Baton Rouge on FSN Southwest.