LEXINGTON, Ky. — With both teams coming off five-game losses on Friday, the 18th-ranked LSU volleyball team will take on Kentucky in a key Southeastern Conference match-up on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CDT in Memorial Coliseum.
Live statistics will be available on the official LSU athletics website, LSUsports.net. In addition, the match will be televised locally in Lexington on CWKYT.
The Tigers (15-3, 7-2 SEC) battled with Tennessee on Friday, coming up just short in the five-game match, their first five-game loss of the season. After falling behind a game, LSU evened it up at one game each. The Tigers fell behind again after dropping game three, but sent the match to five with a win in game four. LSU led late in the fifth game, but could not close it out as the Lady Vols won, 16-14.
“We expect a very tough, very quick-paced match,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “This is a match that we are going to have to be very prepared for. We expect it to be intense and physical because Kentucky has one of the most physical teams in the conference.”
The Wildcats (15-5, 6-3 SEC) also lost a tough five-game match to Ole Miss on Friday. Kentucky dropped the first game, but came back to win games two and three. After the Rebels took game four, Ole Miss dominated the Wildcats in game five to win the match, 15-6.
As a team, LSU and Kentucky are both ranked in the top five in the SEC in most categories. The Wildcats are hitting .267, which ranks second in the league, with 15.81 kills per game, which is also second in the SEC. The Tigers are third in the conference with 15.61 kills per game and fifth in the league with a .220 hitting percentage. LSU also leads the conference with 2.10 service aces per game, compared with Kentucky, which is averaging 1.58 per game, eighth in the SEC.
Defensively, LSU is posting 2.95 blocks per game, second-best in the conference, behind only Kentucky which leads the league with 3.15 blocks per game. The Tigers are also sixth in the SEC with 16.57 digs per game, while the Wildcats are eighth with 15.86. LSU is holding opponents to a .141 hitting percentage this season, second in the conference, while Kentucky has held opponents to a .171 clip, fifth in the conference.
LSU sophomore Lauren DeGirolamo was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week last Monday. Against Tennessee, she recorded a career-high 21 kills to go along with four blocks. For the season, she and Brittnee Cooper are both averaging 1.41 blocks per game, tying them for fourth in the conference. DeGirolamo is also fifth in the league with a .354 hitting percentage and ranks second on the team with 3.41 kills per game.
On Friday, Cooper posted a career-high 10 blocks, the first double-figure blocking match of her career. The match also marked her first career double-double with 13 kills to go along with her 10 blocks.
LSU is led offensively by Kyna Washington with 4.28 kills per game, third most in the conference. A two-time SEC Player of the Week in 2007, Washington has recorded double-figure kills in 15 of LSU’s 18 matches this season. In addition, Washington leads the league with 0.59 aces per game. For her career, the junior outside hitter is just over 50 kills away from becoming the 14th player in LSU history to record 1,000 career kills.
Junior Elena Martinez leads the SEC with an amazing 5.67 digs per game. In her first season as the starting libero, Martinez broke the school records with 34 digs in a five-game win Iowa and 33 digs in a four-game win over Arkansas. She has posted six of the top 18 dig marks in LSU history in only 18 matches this season.
Like LSU, Kentucky is led by their middle blockers. Nicole Britenriker leads the Wildcats and ranks sixth in the SEC with 3.90 kills per game, while coming in 10th in the league with a .322 hitting percentage. Queen Nzenwa is second on the team with a 3.27 kills per game average while leading the conference with a .418 hitting percentage.
Nzenwa also leads Kentucky with 1.58 blocks per game, while Britenriker is eighth in the conference with 1.27 blocks per frame. Alisa Pierce leads the Wildcats with 3.92 digs per game as one of four Kentucky players averaging over two digs per game.
“Kentucky has two of the best middles in the SEC in Queen Nzenwa and Nicole Britenriker,” said Flory. “They are very balanced and don’t have a lot of weaknesses.”
Kentucky leads the overall series with LSU, 23-20, but the Tigers have closed the gap in recent years. LSU has won three straight and four of the last five, including a five-game win in Memorial Coliseum last year. The Tigers won the first two games before dropping games three and four. LSU came back to win game five, 19-17, before sweeping the Wildcats in Baton Rouge late last season.
The Tigers will return home for a mid-week match against Ole Miss on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. which will be televised on Cox Sports Television, before taking on Arkansas on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. All fans wearing pink against the Lady’Backs will get into the match for FREE and both teams will wear special pink shirts for warm-ups prior to the contest.