BATON ROUGE — LSU volleyball player Lauren DeGirolamo was named the first Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week for the 2006 season, it was announced by the league office on Monday.
The Belleville, Ill., native led the Tigers to a 2-1 record to start the year, including a heartbreaking loss to No. 2 Penn State after holding the two-game lead over the Nittany Lions. The middle blocker led LSU in hitting percentage, blocks and blocks per game for the week, posting the second most blocks and third best individual hitting percentage in the tournament.
In her first career match for the Tigers, DeGirolamo recorded 13 kills, while hitting at a .500 clip, with nine blocks against Rice, one shy of her first career double-double. She followed that up with 11 digs and a .550 hitting percentage against Nicholls State. Against No. 2 Penn State, the freshman again recorded nine blocks, tying for the match high, while posting five kills.
This is the first SEC Freshman of the Week honor for DeGirolamo and the Tigers this season. LSU has now earned six SEC Freshman of the Week honors since the conference adopted the award in 2005.
The Tigers return to action this weekend on the road at the Billiken Invitational. LSU will take on Texas A&M, which is receiving votes in the AVCA/CSTV poll, on Friday at 5 p.m. The Tigers will then face host St. Louis on Saturday at noon before closing out the tournament against No. 22 Minnesota at 5 p.m.