BATON ROUGE — LSU volleyball players Kassi Mikulik and Lauren DeGirolamo earned Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week respectively, it was announced by the league office on Monday.
The pair led the 16th-ranked Tigers to a 2-0 record last weekend in the SEC/Big East Challenge. LSU swept both opponents, including a sweep over St. John’s, which was receiving votes in the national poll. The Tigers tied with nationally ranked Florida for the tournament championship.
A Flatonia, Texas, native, Mikulik broke the LSU single-season record for digs against Marquette and now has 525 this season. For the week, she led the tournament in digs and digs per game. The senior has now recorded double-figure digs in every match this season. She needs only 33 digs to move into second place in career digs in LSU history.
In addition, Mikulik allowed the Tiger offense to post a tournament-best .355 hitting percentage with her serve receive, including a season-best .371 mark against the Red Storm. On 47 attempts, she did not have a reception error to record a perfect 1.000 mark in serve receptions.
A Belleville, Ill., native, DeGirolamo led ranked second in the tournament and on the team with a .444 hitting percentage. In addition, she tied for the tournament high with 2.17 blocks per game. The middle blocker also ranked second on the team and fifth in the tournament in kills per game.
Against Marquette, she recorded the second-most block assists and eighth most total blocks in a three-game match in school history with nine. She also moved into fourth place in single-season block assists in LSU history, while remaining in third place in single-season blocks per game.
This is the third SEC Defensive Player of the Week honor for Mikulik in her career and the third of the season for the Tigers. This is the fourth SEC Freshman of the Week honor for DeGirolamo and the eighth SEC honors for the Tigers this season. LSU has now earned nine SEC Freshman of the Week honors since the conference adopted the award in 2005.
On Sunday, the Tigers (26-5) earned an at-large bid after winning their second straight SEC Western Division Championship. LSU will face California out of the Pac-10 in the first round on Friday at 8 p.m. (CST) as part of the San Luis Obispo, Calif., Regional.
No. 15 national seed Cal Poly, the automatic qualifier from the Big West Conference, will take on Michigan, an at-large selection out of the Big Ten, in the first match on Friday. If the Tigers advance past California, they will take on the winner of the Cal Poly-Michigan match on Saturday at 9 p.m. (CST).
The Regional Finals for LSU’s bracket will be held in Austin, Texas, home of No. 7 national seed Texas. The NCAA Final Four will be held in Omaha, Neb.