BATON ROUGE — With the outright Southeastern Conference Western Division title at stake, the 11th-ranked LSU volleyball team will close out the 2006 regular season home schedule on Friday at 7 p.m. against Alabama as the Tigers host “Senior Night” to honor the four departing LSU seniors.
Having won a school record 14 conference matches, the Tigers sit at 22-4 overall and 14-3 in SEC play, three games ahead of the Crimson Tide in the SEC Western Division standings. Alabama comes in at 15-10 on the year and 10-6 in league play, three and a half games behind LSU. After claming no worse than a share of the SEC West Championship on Wednesday, the Tigers can win their first outright SEC West title with a win on Friday.
“The match up on Friday night couldn’t be any better setting for us to play Alabama on our home court,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “It will be senior night with some incredible seniors who have played a huge role in our program.”
As part of Senior Night, there will be an autographed senior jersey giveaway to help send out the four magnificent seniors – Melody Clark, Kassi Mikulik, Daniela Romero and Lauren Leaumont – in style
“We had a great crowd last Friday night with a lot of students and it was really fun,” said Flory. “It was the loudest match that I’ve been a part of at LSU in a long, long time since the early 1990’s when we advanced to the Final Four. Hopefully we can replicate that again on Friday night to honor our seniors the way that they’ve honored this program and how they’ve represented us for so long. Hopefully we can take care of business because it would be wonderful to clinch the West outright on our home court.”
Mikulik leads the Tigers and ranks third in the SEC with 4.48 digs per game. The Flatonia, Texas, libero became just the seventh person in LSU history to record 1,000 career digs and now needs 46 digs to move into third place in Tiger volleyball career history. In addition, she needs just 68 digs to break the LSU single-season record for digs.
Romero leads the SEC and ranks ninth in the NCAA with 13.55 assists per game. Ranked second in career assists per game in LSU history, she is one of only two players in school history to record over 4,000 career assists. In addition, Romero is just 37 digs away from becoming just the eighth player in school history to record 1,000 career digs.
A leader on and off the court, Clark ranks 10th in LSU history in career block assists and blocks per game and is only four blocks away from moving into the top 10 in total career blocks. The Colorado Springs native is also a two-time president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and two-time member of the SEC Good Works team.
Probably the heart and soul of the team for the last several seasons, Lauren Leaumont has been a critical role player over the last three years after earning SEC All-Freshman team honors in 2003. The New Orleans native recorded a season-best 12 kills at Dayton and posted a pair of service aces in wins over Texas A&M and at Kentucky.
“Dee Romero is having an All-America type year,” said Flory. “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, 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. Much of our success is due to their effort and what they have given back to this program.”
One of only four teams to know off LSU this season, Alabama evened the overall series record at 21-21 with its hard fought 28-30, 30-25, 28-30, 30-28 win in Tuscaloosa. As a team, the Tigers recorded 61 kills, compared to 63 for the Crimson Tide. However, LSU posted a team .110 hitting percentage, including a -.094 mark in the fourth game, while Alabama hit at a .250 clip for the match.
“The LSU-Alabama matched has developed into a great rivalry over the last few years,” said Flory. “I think both programs have a great deal of respect for each other. Both teams know this will help determine the SEC divisional championship and that LSU, Alabama and Arkansas are the only teams to win SEC Western Division titles since the conference went to that format.”
In that match, freshman Lauren DeGirolamo led the Tigers with 14 kills, followed by sophomore Marina Skender with 13, sophomore Kyna Washington with 12 and Clark with 11. DeGirolamo led LSU with five blocks, followed by three from Romero and junior Vanessa Freeman.
Romero finished with 51 assists, which was her sixth of 11 50-assist matches of the season. Mikulik led the match with 26 digs, which was her sixth of nine 20-plus dig matches of the season. In addition, Skender posted 17 digs, while also leading the match with five service aces.
Bridget Fuentez led the match and Alabama with 20 kills, followed by Crystal Hudson with 16 and Brooks Webster with 13. Fuentez and Rachael Green led the match with six blocks each, while Amy Pauly led the Crimson Tide with 25 digs.
For the season, LSU leads Alabama on the offensive side of the net; with 16.97 kills per game, second best in the SEC, compared to 14.68 for the Crimson Tide. In addition, the Tigers lead Alabama in hitting percentage, with a .225 mark, compared to a .223 clip for the Crimson Tide. The pair are also both very tough serving teams, as LSU is recording 1.76 aces per game, while Alabama has is averaging 1.53 aces per game.
Defensively, LSU again leads Alabama, holding a 3.05 to 2.74 blocks per game advantage, while also leading in digs per game, 17.70 to 16.06. The Tigers also rank second in the SEC in opponents hitting percentage, holding opponents to just a.147 clip, while the Crimson Tide rank third at .175.
DeGirolamo leads the Tigers and ranks sixth in the nation with 1.65 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 3.03 kills per game with a team-best .319 hitting percentage.
Offensively, LSU is balanced with three players averaging over three kills a game and six players posting over two kills a game. Skender leads the way with 3.83 kills per game. In addition, she leads in the SEC with 0.70 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 1.09 blocks a game and Freeman has 1.03 a game. Mikulik leads the Tigers with 4.82 digs per game, followed by Skender at 3.38 and Romero at 3.03.
Hudson and Fuentez lead Alabama with 3.92 and 3.78 kills per game respectively, while Hudson leads the Crimson Tide with a .404 hitting percentage. Defensively, Pauly leads Alabama with 4.28 digs per game, while Green leads the Crimson Tide with 1.14 blocks per game, followed by Hudson at 1.13 blocks per game.
Next weekend the Tigers will travel to Mississippi to close out the SEC regular season. LSU will travel to Mississippi State on Friday for a rematch with the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then close out the conference season at Ole Miss on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. LSU will conclude the 2006 regular season in Orlando on Thanksgiving Weekend in the SEC/Big East Challenge. The Tigers will face St. John’s and Marquette in the two-day tournament.