BATON ROUGE — LSU senior Daniela Romero and sophomore Marina Skender were named to the All-Southeastern Conference first team, while Lauren DeGirolamo earned SEC All-Freshmen team honors, it was announced by the league office on Tuesday.
The two Tiger players on the first team tied Florida for the most of any school in the league. In addition, the three total players to earn league honors tied for second in the conference with Tennessee and Kentucky, trailing only Florida. It also marks the first time since 1999 that the LSU has placed two players on the All-SEC first team.
The first-team honor marks the first conference award of Romero’s career after starting for the Tigers at setter in all four of her seasons. Earlier this year, she earned her first SEC Player of the Week honors, taking home the award on Sept. 5, while also earning Most Valuable Player honors at the Billiken and Dayton Marriott Invitationals and being selected to the Tiger Invitational and SEC/Big East Challenge all-tournament teams.
The Arlington, Texas, native currently leads the SEC and ranks 12th in the NCAA with 13.53 assists per game. While recording 50 or more assists in 13 matches this season, her 1,488 assists this year ranks fourth in single-season assists in school history. In addition, she ranks second in career assists behind only Daniela Reis, who holds the SEC career record.
Guiding the LSU offense to school records for kills and assists per game, she led the Tigers to eight matches with hitting percentages over .300. With 51 assists against Kentucky, she tied for the seventh-most assists in a three-game match in school history. Against Marquette last week, she became just the eighth player in Tiger history to record 1,000 career digs. Romero now ranks eighth in career digs in LSU history.
After earning SEC Freshman of the Year and All-SEC second team honors last season, Skender moved up to the first team in 2006. She is the first two-time All-SEC selection since Meagan Davis in 2000-2001.
The outside hitter from Zagreb, Croatia, currently leads the team and ranks eight in the SEC with 3.84 kills per game. This season, she leads the Tigers with 17 double-doubles, with double-figure kills in 27 matches and double-figure digs in 19 matches. Against nationally ranked Florida, she recorded career highs for kills and digs with 23 of each. She posted a season-best .459 hitting percentage against NCAA Tournament participant Alabama.
Skender also leads the SEC and ranks fifth in the NCAA with 0.70 service aces per game. Ranked 11th in single-season service aces in LSU history, she recorded the fifth-most aces in a four-game match in school history earlier this year with seven against Texas A&M. As one of the Tigers’ primary passers, she has recorded just 15 reception errors in 574 attempts for a .974 reception percentage.
After redshirting last season, DeGirolamo has made an immediate impact in the Tiger starting lineup. The middle blocker earned Collegiate Volleyball Update National Player of the Week honors on Sept. 19 and appeared in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” on Oct. 9. The SEC Freshman of the Week four times this year, she has earned the award more than any other freshman in the league.
The native of Belleville, Ill., currently leads the team and ranks second in the SEC and eighth in the NCAA with 1.66 blocks per game. She also leads the team and ranks 10th in the league in hitting percentage. On three occasions she has recorded double-figure blocks, including a career-high 11 against Auburn.
This season, DeGirolamo ranks fourth in single-season block assists and third in single-season blocks per game in LSU history. Against Marquette, she recorded the second most block assists and ninth-most total blocks in a three-game match in school history with nine. She has led or tied for the team lead in blocks in 23 of LSU’s 31 matches this season.
Last 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.
Coach of the Year: Joe Getzin, Ole Miss
Player of the Year: Angie McGinnis, Florida
Defensive Player of the Year: Elyse Cusack, Florida
Freshman of the Year: Sarah Rumely, Kentucky
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Rachel Shanks, Auburn
FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC
Crystal Hudson, Alabama
Amber McCray, Florida
Angie McGinnis, Florida
Daniela Romero, LSU
Marina Skender, LSU
Shonda Cole, South Carolina
Sarah Blum, Tennessee
SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC
Bridget Fuentez, Alabama
Denitza Koleva, Arkansas
Kelsey Bowers, Florida
Marcie Hampton, Florida
Queen Nzenwa, Kentucky
Nicole Britenriker, Kentucky
Jaclyn Toohey, Ole Miss
Yuliya Stoyanova, Tennessee
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Destiny Clark, Arkansas
Elyse Cusack, Florida
Kristina Johnson, Florida
Sarah Rumely, Kentucky
Lauren DeGirolamo, LSU
Martina Gregusova, Mississippi State
Leah Hinkey, Tennessee