BATON ROUGE — With a chance to clinch at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship, the 11th-ranked LSU volleyball team will go for its first season sweep of Arkansas in school history on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center.
Pom-poms will be available as local cheer teams get in free with “Advocate” tickets for the Arkansas match as part of “Pep Rally at the PMAC.” In addition, live statistics will be available on the official LSU athletics website, LSUsports.net.
“This is going to be a big challenge for us and our team is very prepared for that,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “Our team likes to play Arkansas. We have a little bantering back and forth and it gets pretty competitive out there. This is a fun one for us. We are not going to look past Arkansas in any capacity.”
The Tigers (21-4, 13-3 SEC) is currently sitting atop the Southeastern Conference Western Division, holding a three-game lead over Alabama and a five-game lead over the Lady Razorbacks, with four matches remaining. With a win on Wednesday, LSU can clinch at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship and go for the outright title on Sunday against Alabama. Arkansas (15-9, 8-8 SEC) had its five-match winning streak snapped on Sunday against No. 7 Florida.
“We have kind of put ourselves behind the eight ball in terms of the SEC championship with Florida expected to win out,” said Flory. “I think they will and they will be champions again, but the next goal that we can attain is the SEC Western Division championship. We can take a step forward in the avenue against Arkansas.
“Arkansas is a team that has won the West more than anybody else. They are a team that is struggling to get into the NCAA Tournament. They are pointing to this match as strongly as we are and even maybe a little more so. With us sitting three games ahead of Alabama in the West, if we win tomorrow night, we will clinch a share of the SEC Western Division championship. A match up on Friday night against Alabama couldn’t be any better setting for us to play Alabama on our home court.”
Although Arkansas holds a commanding 22-5 lead in the overall series, LSU has won three of the last five meetings. The series record is a bit deceptive in that the Lady’Backs won the first 12 meetings before the Tigers earned their first win in 2000. Since then, LSU has won five of the last 15 meetings to make the series much more competitive.
“Arkansas is a divisional rival and I don’t think we will ever look past Arkansas,” said Flory. “We have gone head-to-head with them since they started volleyball in the 1990’s. They are a team that is on the bubble, in their opinion, to get into the NCAA Tournament. In the first round of the SEC season, they did not play very well. They have revamped their lineup and created some opportunities for their offense and they are a much, much better team today than the team we played in Fayetteville.”
In their first meeting this season, the Tigers topped Arkansas, 30-24, 20-30, 30-26, 32-30, on Oct. 4 in Fayetteville, Ark. Despite the win, it was a tough match for LSU, which dropped its first game in conference play as the Tigers needed extra points to take the fourth game and the match.
As a team, LSU posted 75 kills with a .258 hitting percentage. In addition, the Tigers recorded 79 digs with eight blocks and five service aces. Arkansas had 63 kills while hitting at a .225 clip for the match. The Lady’Backs posted only five blocks with six aces.
Sophomore Kyna Washington led the match with 19 kills for LSU while also posting 10 digs for a double-double, one of three Tigers with double-doubles. Marina Skender recorded 18 kills with 19 digs, while Daniela Romero posted 62 assists with 12 digs.
Senior Kassi Mikulik led the match with 20 digs, followed by Skender, Romero, Washington and Michelle Hensgens, who had 10 digs. Melody Clark led the match with seven blocks, while also recording 13 kills for the Tigers. Lauren DeGirolamo also posted 13 kills for LSU.
Denitza Koleva led Arkansas with 18 kills, followed by Amy Allison with 14 and Kele Brewer with 11. Ashley Miller led the match with 25 digs, while Koleva recorded 16. Allison led the Lady Razorbacks with three blocks.
For the season, LSU leads Arkansas on the offensive side of the net; with 16.83 kills per game, second in the SEC, compared to 15.24 for the Lady’Backs. Arkansas, however, leads the Tigers in hitting percentage with a .225 mark, compared to a .223 clip for LSU.
Defensively, the Tigers hold an advantage over the Lady’Backs with 17.62 digs per game, compared to 16.11 for Arkansas. LSU also leads the Lady Razorbacks in digs, posting 3.12 per game, while Arkansas averages 2.81 per game. In addition, the Tigers lead the SEC in opponents hitting percentage, holding opponents to just a .145 clip, while the Lady’Backs rank eighth at .203.
Mikulik leads the Tigers with 4.77 digs per game, third best in the SEC this season. The Flatonia, Texas, libero became just the seventh person in LSU history to record 1,000 career digs and now needs 11 digs to move into fourth place in Tiger volleyball career history. In addition, she is just 87 digs away from breaking the LSU single-season digs record, having recorded the third-most single-season digs already this year.
Romero leads the SEC and ranks 13th in the NCAA with 13.43 assists per game. Ranked second in career assists in LSU history, the Arlington, Texas, senior currently needs 86 assists to move into the Top 10 in single-season assists in school history. In addition, she is 43 digs away from becoming the eighth player in LSU history to record 1,000 career digs.
DeGirolamo leads the Tigers and ranks sixth in the nation with 1.69 blocks per game. The Belleville, Ill., redshirt freshman has recorded nine matches with eight or more blocks this season, including back-to-back double-figure blocking matches against Tennessee and Kentucky. In addition, she is averaging 2.98 kills per game with a team-best .310 hitting percentage.
Offensively, LSU is balanced with two players averaging over three kills a game and five players posting over two kills a game. Skender leads the way with 3.89 kills per game. In addition, she leads in the SEC with 0.72 service aces per game, which ranks fifth nationally.
Defensively, four Tigers are averaging over a block a game, led by DeGirolamo. Following her, freshman Brittnee Cooper comes in at 1.14 blocks a game in limited action, while Clark posts 1.12 blocks a game and Vanessa Freeman has 1.05 a game.
Koleva leads Arkansas with 4.21 kills per game, the only Lady’Back averaging over three kills per game. Defensively, two players are averaging over a block a game, led by Destiny Clark with 1.32 blocks per game, which ranks fourth in the SEC; and Allison at 1.30 a game, fifth in the league. Miller leads Arkansas with 4.66 digs per game, which is currently fourth in the conference.
LSU will close out the regular season home schedule on Friday against Alabama at 7 p.m. for Senior Night. There will be an autographed senior jersey giveaway to help send out the four magnificent seniors in style
“What a great year we have had. Certainly last week was a culmination with taking on No. 7 Florida on our home court. We had a great performance and out played them in every avenue, except the one that counts and that’s not having as many errors as they did. For anyone who was there, it was a high level match and certainly something we home we can get back into if in fact we are fortunate enough to win out we’re hopeful we can host the first and second round NCAA matches here in the first week of December. That is what we are pointing to.
“It will be senior night with some incredible seniors who have played a huge role in our program,” said Flory of the Alabama match. “Dee Romero is having an All-America type year. Kassi has been, in our opinion, the MVP of this team for the last two seasons with her ball control and defense. Melody has been a stabilizing force for four years. Mel and Kassi and Dee have started almost every match of their careers with the Tigers and we’re going to be sad to see them go. But we are thrilled for them that they are having such a great senior year and much of that is due to their effort and what they have given back to this program.”