BATON ROUGE — Playing with 12 players that rotated between teams, the Gold squad defeated the Purple squad, 30-17, 30-23, 30-23, in the LSU volleyball intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday night in the Maravich Center.
The team was split into two teams of six, but players alternated between teams without a set rotation throughout the match. Although the Gold team won in three games, the scrimmage was only scheduled to go for three games to help the players adjust to the main court at the Maravich Center.
“We think we’re very close,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory of her team’s readiness to start the season. “I think we’re a step away. We have a couple more opportunities to practice before we open.”
Playing for the first time in the main arena on a brand new playing surface, today was the first opportunity for the Tigers to get a feel for a match-like atmosphere. Over the past few weeks the subfloor in the arena was resurfaced and a new playing floor arrived earlier this week. The team has spent the entire preseason practicing in the auxiliary gym.
“I think we’ll be read when we get the chance to actually practice up here,” said Flory. “Today was the first day we have had the chance to play up here with the new floor and the new subfloor project. We’re excited to be up here, but we’re not comfortable up here. Once we get another couple of practices up here, we’ll have that comfort level.”
Junior Kyna Washington led the team with 20 kills while also hitting .333 for the match with eight digs and two service aces. Freshman Angela Bensend recorded 17 kills in the match, while sophomore Brittnee Cooper and freshman Tania Schatow had nine kills each. Schatow also led the match with six blocks, including two solo efforts.
“The most important part of our offense is Marina Skender and Kyna Washington,” said Flory. “We will play Kyna on the outside, while working Marina in on the right side. Having that type of experience is definitely the base, but we also have to great middles in Lauren DeGirolamo and Brittnee Cooper. Brittnee will arrive on the scene this year. She’s a 6-4 middle who played some last year, but we really brought her along in the spring.”
Sophomore Maggie Lonergan and freshman Brittney Johnson set for each team, with Lonergan posting 31 assists, followed by Johnson with 29. As a team, the Tigers totaled 80 kills for the match, while posting 100 digs and 11 blocks.
“I think we’re going to be a fun team to watch, but may not be as fast as we were last year,” said Flory. “We have two new setters running our offense and it’s like having a freshman quarterback. We’re going to go slow and develop our offense. It won’t be very complicated in the beginning and as the season progresses we will add some more to it.”
LSU will begin play on Friday at 7 p.m. against New Orleans. The Tigers will continue play in the two-day round robin tournament against UL-Monroe on Saturday at 11 a.m. The tournament will conclude with LSU facing Saint Louis on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Other tournament matches include Saint Louis against UL-Monroe on Friday at 4:30 p.m. New Orleans will then take on Saint Louis at 1 p.m. on Saturday, before the Warhawks face New Orleans at 5 p.m. Fans will have the chance to pick up LSU team posters and schedule cards throughout the tournament.