Comments from volleyball head coach Fran Flory from LSU Volleyball/Soccer Media Day
Opening Statement …
“Last year I stood here and talked about a veteran team, a team that was basically returning the majority if not all of our lineup, and this year those veterans are gone. Losing Dee (Daniela) Romero as our starting quarterback in the setter position leaves huge shoes to fill. We are a very young team but a very exciting team. The athleticism in the gym is at one of the highest levels we’ve had. The future is very bright, but I will tell, you from the start, we are going to take our knocks in the beginning because we have some big shoes and some big spots to fill. We are going to have to figure out how to fill those spots and who is going to step into those spots.
“Having dependable players back in Marina Skender, a first team all-conference player, and Kyna Washington, who I anticipate will have an all-conference type year this season; they will be our go-to players. Lauren DeGirolamo, who I think should have been the Freshman of the Year in the conference last year and must not have missed (Freshman of the Year) by much because we were really disappointed that she did not walk away with that award. She is going to be an awfully good player again this year, and I look for her to have an All-America-type season. I think she is probably our top candidate to step into those shoes, filling in for Dee Romero who was All-American last year in the setting position. We only have one senior, Michelle Hensgens, a little defensive specialist about five feet tall from Morgan City. She’s a tough one. She’s working really hard and providing a great deal of leadership for our group.
“The incoming freshmen have been great. There are two especially who are better than advertised. Angela Bensend out of the Dallas area is a nice surprise in the gym. She’s a little more physical than we expected, a little quicker than we expected and will have more immediate impact than we thought she would. The other one is a local favorite, Brittney Johnson from U-High. She is definitely better than advertised. She will probably step into a setting role at some point, but we are going to bring her along slowly just as you would a starting quarterback ? a freshman walking into the football team. You are not going to throw them out there in the first game. There’s a lot to learn running an offense, and the decision-making part of the game is the most difficult part for us just as it is in football. Maggie Lonergan is our returning setter, and she has done a great job as well. She will be more than ready to take us in the beginning in all probability. Then Brittney will kind of make her way in, and we’ll see how she develops.
“We will be a fast, dynamic, very defensive-minded team because we have that speed. Teams are going to have to beat us. We are not going to lose a lot in terms of us scoring points for the other team. As you well know, we play rally scoring, and an error is a point for the other team and certainly we don’t want to give the other team points. We do a lot of training and focusing on being efficient. If we had one thing that cost us last year as a team, it was probably that we were not efficient enough. We left California after losing in the first round (of the NCAA Tournament) and looked back on it and said if we could have increased our efficiency offensively we would still be playing later into the month of December.
“I think it’s an exciting start for us. Our team came out very fit, very ready. They did a great job of preparing during the summer. We had a great spring. We have a nontraditional season that you play in the spring. It doesn’t count. It’s kind of like football offseason, but we actually get to compete against other collegiate teams. We only lost one match. We won all of our matches and lost one in the spring, so this team is really ready to go. They’ve turned the corner in this program in terms of knowing how to win and what’s necessary to be SEC West champs and take that next step to be the SEC champion.
“The coaches poll came out yesterday and we are picked second in the west, which for this young team is probably an accurate pick. Certainly we expect to be in the top seat by the end of the season.”
On who has stepped up as the leaders for this young team …
“Michelle Hensgens and Lauren DeGirolamo are the two who have certainly stepped in and have set the standard for what is acceptable in our gym and how we play. They certainly understand our philosophy and what we’re about and what it takes. They are two of the hardest workers on the team by far and probably the two most prepared players for preseason. They did the work in the summer in the offseason to make sure they were ready. Those are kids I would trust anything to. They are great kids, great balanced students and are the whole picture, and I think they are going to set a great standard for us.”
On what it will take to overcome Alabama in the SEC West …
“Alabama will have five seniors in their starting lineup. They return their entire team from last year’s team that did make it to the NCAA tournament, and they had a great year as well. I would like to think that we are next year’s Alabama because we will return our entire team next year with the exception of Michelle (Hensgens). Their experience level will be very important to them and whether their kids prepared during the summer. I don’t know where they are, but I would anticipate they are prepared with that type of leadership. I don’t think they have the depth that they need, but we’ll see.
“The question mark is do we have the depth that we need, and that’s a real question mark for us. Besides the seniors that we lost, Alaina Klarquist, who would have been a sophomore outside hitter, did not return. She had a hip injury and has had to take a medical hardship. She will not be returning, and Vanessa Freeman, who was a huge force on the right side for us, a very physical player, graduated this summer and decided not to continue playing. Those are a couple gaps as well, in terms of depth our seventh and eighth people, that are going to be hard to replace, and that is certainly going to affect our maturity on the court.”
On the non-conference schedule …
“I think we have the perfect schedule for the type of team we have. The UNO start is a great start because they’re a feisty team. They’re not going to be more physical, but they may be pretty fast. They’re going to be a solid team. They have a new head coach there, so we’re not going to be familiar with their style when they step on the court, which is a little bit of an adventure for us. But we’ll be ready.
“Opening with ULM and then Saint Louis ? Saint Louis is a very good team, good ball control. You have to beat Saint Louis. They are not going to give you much. I think it’s a good start, and then we step into Big Ten/Big 12 opponents. We are going to have the right opportunity to have significant wins but also balance the right opportunity to get some young players the right level of experience and hopefully success to prepare for that start against Ole Miss with SEC play.”
On if Brittney Johnson may be in the starting lineup at some point in the season …
“Much will depend on how she matures and, as we call it, her volleyball IQ increases. Understanding how to do the little things and how to run an offense is a very complicated matter. We have a new staff as well, and our setting coach Steve Loeswick was an all-American setter at Southern Cal and played professionally. He is in charge of that, so we have said bring her along as well and as quickly as possible. We’re not going to destroy her in the process. We’re going to be real careful because I would say she is the future in that position. She’s our next setting All-American, and LSU has had several over the years. We’re real excited about where she’s going to be. We just don’t know how quickly she’ll get there.”
On if having a young team will allow much competition to earn a starting position …
“Absolutely. There are very few positions that have been earned thus far. We’ve practiced about nine times already this year, and there are a few constants. We know Kyna Washington is going to hit on the outside and is probably going to start. We know that Marina Skender is going to be on the court, but we don’t know if she’s going to be on the left side or the right side. We know Lauren DeGirolamo is going to be in the middle and is going to be the stabilizing force.
“Brittnee Cooper is another newcomer who played last year and, if you saw us play, is a very physically imposing, 6’4” woman who can absolutely put the ball away. She had a coming out in the spring in terms of volleyball skill, and she is going to arrive on the scene this fall. She is going to be awfully difficult to defend. We know she will be in the middle.
“We do not know who is going to set. We also have competition between Elena Martinez and Michelle Hensgens at the libero spot. We don’t know who our libero will be. There are a lot of question marks. Sometimes that’s bad, but with a young team I think that’s a good because I think we can have some versatility. I think we can train them in a lot of different ways and certainly for the future we’ll be more prepared to be even better by the time SEC arrives.”
On if she has the program where she wants it to be …
“I think this program is exactly where we need to be. So much of – and I think I learned a little bit of this from coach (Skip) Bertman – winning is developing the attitude. The athletes in college are pretty much the same. You need one defining athlete to really make a difference. I feel like we have a couple on this team. Kyna Washington is a defining athlete. Brittnee Cooper is a defining athlete. The difference is the mentality the kids have in the program, the expectation to win, the expectation to have to work and have to put in the time and effort to reach that level. I think the kids in our program finally understand that, and when they step on the court they expect to win. It’s not just I hope to win or we might. It’s we expect to take care of business, and this program with L.D. (Lauren DeGirolamo) and Michelle (Hensgens) leading the way, I think we’ll continue in that direction.”