BATON ROUGE — LSU volleyball player Lauren DeGirolamo was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week, it was announced by the league office on Monday.
The Belleville, Ill., native led the Tigers to a 2-0 record to close out SEC play at home and clinch LSU’s first outright Western Division title. On Wednesday, the Tigers swept Arkansas to complete the first two-match season sweep of the Lady Razorbacks in school history. Two days later, LSU swept Alabama, avenging an early season loss to the Crimson Tide, to clinch the outright divisional championship.
DeGirolamo led LSU in kills and hitting percentage against Arkansas, recording 14 kills and an amazing .520 hitting percentage. Against Alabama, the middle blocker tied for the match lead in blocks and recorded a career-high seven digs. For the week, she finished second on the team in hitting percentage and kills per game and led the team in blocks per game.
In just her freshman season, she needs only four block assists to break into the top 10 in single-season block assists in school history. She also ranks third in single-season blocks per game in school history.
This is the third SEC Freshman of the Week honor for DeGirolamo and the sixth SEC honor for the Tigers this season. LSU has now earned eight SEC Freshman of the Week honors since the conference adopted the award in 2005.
This 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.