EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part 1 of a 12-part volleyball series recapping the outstanding 2005 season, previewing the 2006 season, giving fans basic volleyball rules, terminology and scoring basics leading up to the season-opening Tiger Invitational tournament in the Maravich Center on Aug. 25-26, featuring the “Pack Pete’s Seats” match against No. 2 Penn State at 7 p.m. on Aug. 26.
BATON ROUGE — After traveling over 14,000 miles and playing 23 of their 29 matches on the road, the 2005 LSU volleyball team won a share of its first Southeastern Conference Western Division title and earned its first bid to the NCAA Tournament in 13 years.
The Tigers concluded the season at 21-8, recording the most wins since 1993, while boasting the best winning percentage since the 1992 team went 26-9. In addition, the Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in school history and the first time since making four consecutive appearances from 1989-1992.
For the first time in school history, the Tigers claimed a share of the SEC Western Division championship. After posting an 11-5 conference record and closing out the regular season with a five-game win over Kentucky, LSU earned a share of the SEC West with Arkansas. The last time LSU previously won an SEC title was when the Tigers won three straight overall SEC Championships from 1989-1991.
Individually, senior Ivana Kuzmic earned first-team All-SEC and first-team AVCA All-South Region honors and was named the Louisiana Player of the Year. In addition, she earned honorable mention AVCA All-America honors, becoming the first LSU volleyball player to be honored as an All-American since Angie Miller and Daniela Reis earned the honor in 1992.
Marina Skender was named to the All-SEC second team and selected the SEC Freshman of the Year, the first LSU athlete to earn the honor since Luciana Reis in 1990. Senior Jelena Mijatovic also earned second-team All-SEC honors, while Kyna Washington was named to the SEC All-Freshman team.
The remarkable accomplishments of the 2005 season were achieved while facing the adversity of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which forced the team to play on the road for most of the year. The team played its first 17 consecutive matches away from the friendly confines of the Maravich Center. The Tigers wrapped up a seven week road trip with a 13-4 record.
LSU was gone 26 of 46 days over that period and traveled 9,751 miles. During the monumental stretch, the Tigers never left the southeastern United States before coming home to host their first match in mid-October against Mississippi State. In less than two months, LSU bused the equivalent of New York to Los Angeles and flew the equivalent of Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia.
Later in the season, the Tigers returned to the road for trips to Athens, Ga., and Gainesville, Fla. (with an emergency landing in Montgomery on the return trip from Atlanta to Baton Rouge) and closed out their regular season road schedule with trips to Oxford, Miss. and Starkville, Miss. LSU then traveled to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the second time in 2005 for the SEC Tournament.
The Tigers concluded their season with a road trip to Texas for the third time in the season as LSU went to Austin for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 years. In total, the Tigers traveled 14,023 total miles during the 2005 season, which is equivalent to a trip one and a half times around the earth from Baton Rouge, while posting the most road wins since the 1991 team recorded 17 wins in matches away from the Maravich Center.
After the adversity of the extended road trip in 2006, the team is thankful to be opening the 2006 season at home. LSU will begin the 2006 season on Aug. 25 against Rice in the Maravich Center in the Tiger Invitational at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then take on Nicholls State on Aug. 26 at 11 a.m. before closing out the two-day tournament against No. 2 Penn State at 7 p.m.
Admission to the tournament is free with an “Advocate” ticket. Those tickets are available through the LSU Promotions Department by calling (225) 578-8960. In addition, fans are encouraged to wear white to the Penn State match, and “Walk on the Wild Side” t-shirts will be given away in an attempt to “Pack Pete’s Seats” and break the LSU volleyball attendance record.