BATON ROUGE — On Tuesday, LSU volleyball head coach Fran Flory along with members of her team and coaching staff addressed the media at the annual Media Day at Walk-On’s.
Use the link above to view archived video from the press conference in the Geaux Zone powered by USAgencies.
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Comments from volleyball head coach Fran Flory from LSU Volleyball Media Day
Opening Statement…
“First, I would like to say thank you to Walk-On’s and all of you for being here. I think this is the biggest media day that we have had as a volleyball program since I’ve been here and I know since Brian (Lee – soccer head coach) has been here, and we appreciate that.”
On the expectations for the 2006 season…
“I think the expectations for our team are very high this year. We are really excited. The poll just came out from the coaches and we are picked to repeat as SEC West champions and actually got a couple of votes to be the overall SEC champion this year. We are a senior laden team. We are a team that has worked very hard to prepare and a team that has the right mix of youth and experience. They say that your eyes are your windows to your soul and I saw something special in this team last year when we lost in the NCAA Tournament at Texas. We were on the court and we circled up and they looked me in the eye and they said that this was not good enough. We had an opportunity and we feel like we gave that away. We talked about next year, being on whatever court in the NCAA Tournament, feeling the opposite – celebrating a victory and preparing for the next step that we feel like we are capable of making.”
About the type of team you will see in 2006…
“We have some great players returning. We are really excited about the dynamics of our group and we are really excited about our athleticism and the system that we are choosing to play. We have decided to go with a really fast, really furious type of play. We play great defense. You will see kids flying all over the court, diving into the stands and going anywhere they can. In the purple and gold scrimmage, we probably had the best defensive effort that I’ve ever had on an LSU team and maybe on any team I’ve ever coached. We had 16 blocks by a team, four blocks per game; in a four game match is an outstanding match. Add to that the number of digs we had and teams are going to have a hard time beating us. That is a great opportunity for us and a great tribute to the work ethic they have put in because defense is effort. It’s the relentless pursuit and I think this team has that attitude.”
Describing several key players that are returning…
“You couple that with the offensive threats that we have and I think Vanessa Freeman has to come to mind because she hits the ball harder than any person I have ever coached. She plays on the right side and we use her a lot. Fortunately we have a setter that can get the ball to her. You will see her bounce some ball and hopefully not hurt someone, but potentially that could occur because she hits the ball so hard. The middle blockers that we have include Melody Clark. She is probably the unsung hero of this team. She has certainly been a stabilizing force. She doesn’t get a lot of press and doesn’t get a lot of mentions, but when you look at the stat sheet, she’s the one that is stable all the time .Every team needs that and we need for her to step up. Kassi Mikulik, as the libero, our staff got together after last year and if we had voted on an MVP, it wouldn’t have been our All-Conference or our All-Freshmen members, it would have been Kassi. She provided the ball control and the continuity that we needed. Our setter, Daniela Romero, is prepared for the best year that she is ever going to have. She’s a senior who has come through the ranks. She has set for four years for us. She started last year with an injury and rallied through that and now is very prepared and very fit and ready to take on a great leadership role.”
On the opening weekend…
“The opening weekend for us is this weekend on Friday at 7 p.m. against Rice. Rice is one year removed from an NCAA Tournament appearance. Everyone is talking about Penn State, Penn State, Penn State, on Saturday, but I’m talking about Rice, Rice, Rice. That is our first one and certainly our most important one. I think they are looking for a little revenge. We have an assistant coach that we hired away from them a couple of years ago – John Blackwell – and they love John as we do and we need to make sure that we protect that hire on Friday night. They are a very solid team. We know that right off the bat we are going to have to be ready. We have Nicholls State at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. Again, they are a young team, and we don’t know that much about anyone we are playing other than Penn State on Saturday night at 7 p.m. They are going to come in ranked No. 2. It is a great opportunity to have that type of team on our home court and have the opportunity to see where we are and I feel very positive about where we match up with them. I feel very positive about how our system will balance against theirs. I think it will be a very exciting match and certainly hope Tiger fans will come out and support us this weekend at all of our matches. We are trying to break the attendance record on Saturday night for “Pack Pete’s Seats” at 7 p.m. We certainly hope that everybody will be there.”
On the change in style of play this season…
“It’s partially due to personnel and partially due to the evolution of the game. With rally scoring it’s no longer about keeping the ball in play as long as you can. It’s now more about termination on the offensive side. It’s kind of like the run and gun or a team that shoots three-pointers in basketball. You’ve got to try and score in any capacity that you can as quickly and as aggressively as you can.”