BATON ROUGE — After near career high kill performances and outstanding blocking numbers, LSU sophomore Lauren DeGirolamo was named the Southeastern Conference Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week as the Tigers moved up two spots to No. 18 in the AVCA/CSTV Coaches poll, it was announced on Monday.
This is the first Defensive Player of the Week honor for DeGirolamo in her career, after being named the SEC Freshman of the Week a league-best four times last season. The Belleville, Ill., native helped lead LSU to a pair of wins at home last weekend, defeating Alabama in five games to take over first place in the SEC Western Division, before coming from behind to knock off Mississippi State.
Against the Crimson Tide on Friday, DeGirolamo was two kills shy of her career best with 17, while also leading LSU with six blocks, while posting a match-high .467 hitting percentage. The middle blocker topped that performance on Sunday against the Bulldogs. DeGirolamo tied for the match high with 18 kills, one shy of her career best, while hitting at a match best .457 clip. She also led the match with nine blocks, one block shy of giving her the fifth double-double of her career.
For the week, DeGirolamo led the Tigers with a .462 hitting percentage, committing only five total errors in 65 attempts with 35 kills. In addition, she posted a team-high 1.67 blocks per game, including five solo blocks. DeGirolamo averaged 3.89 kills per game, second best on the team, with 5.11 points per game. In just her second season at LSU, she is less than 50 kills away from posting 600 and only 22 blocks away from recording 300 for her career, which puts her on pace to possibly break the LSU blocking record before her career is finished.
The No. 18 national ranking marks the 22nd consecutive week the Tigers have been among the Top 25, the longest streak since being ranked for 52 straight weeks from 1989 through 1993. In addition, it marks the highest ranking for LSU this season, improving from a season high ranking of No. 20 last week.
Florida remains the highest ranked team in the SEC, moving up one place to No. 5 this week after remaining undefeated at 15-0. The Gators are the only conference team to post a win over the Tigers this season, winning a hotly contested 3-1 match in Baton Rouge.
LSU returns to action on the road next weekend as the Tigers travel to face Tennessee and Kentucky. LSU will take on the Lady Vols on Friday at 6 p.m. CDT before closing out the weekend on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CDT against the Wildcats. The Tigers will return home for a mid-week match against Ole Miss on Oct. 17 which will be televised on Cox Sports Television, before taking on Arkansas on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.
2007 CSTV/AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll
Rank
School (First-Place Votes)
Total Points
2007 Record
Last Week
1.
Nebraska (52)
1492
14-0
1
2.
Stanford (8)
1448
16-0
2
3.
Penn State
1373
14-2
3
4.
UCLA
1294
14-2
5
5.
Florida
1214
15-0
6
6.
Southern California
1202
14-2
4
7.
Texas
1152
10-3
7
8.
Washington
1110
16-0
8
9.
Wisconsin
1025
14-1
9
10.
California
960
12-4
10
11.
Minnesota
876
12-4
11
12.
Hawai’i
824
13-3
12
13.
Duke
745
12-3
13
14.
Dayton
655
19-0
15
15.
Michigan
575
15-3
16
16.
Kansas State
512
13-5
17
17.
San Diego
505
12-5
14
18.
LSU
431
15-2
20
19.
Oregon
411
14-4
19
20.
New Mexico State
338
16-3
22
21.
Ohio
332
13-4
21
22.
St. John’s
230
20-3
18
23.
Colorado State
168
11-4
25
24.
Cal Poly
114
10-7
24
25.
Oklahoma
87
14-3
NR
Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots : Louisville 85; Middle Tennessee 78; Sacramento State 63; Pepperdine 52; BYU 38; Long Beach State 37; Wichita State 20; Iowa State 14; Missouri State 8; UNLV 7; Santa Clara 6; Clemson 3; Miami (OH) 3..