BATON ROUGE — Angela Bensend was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week as the LSU volleyball team steps out of league play for a match against Notre Dame on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center.
All fans who donated a dollar or more during the “Dig for the Cure” campaign have been entered in a drawing to win a digital camera. The winner will be announced prior to the start of the match on Tuesday.
The Tigers (17-4, 9-3 SEC) are currently tied with Alabama for the SEC Western Division lead. LSU defeated Ole Miss in four games last Wednesday before sweeping Arkansas on Friday. Despite the two convincing wins, which included the sweep of the Lady’Backs when Arkansas was receiving votes in the national poll, the Tigers dropped out of the AVCA/CSTV poll for the first time in 23 weeks, taking the top spot among the others receiving votes.
After struggling in the preseason with six losses, including four to nationally ranked opponents, Notre Dame (9-9, 5-4 Big East) has come back to even its record and move into a tie for fifth in the Big East standings. The Fighting Irish come into this week after back-to-back wins over DePaul and Syracuse.
“We don’t know that much about Notre Dame this season,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “They are traditionally a very good team that is very solid and very well coached. We know that we’re going to have to be prepared for a very tough match.”
Bensend averaged 2.43 kills per game last week and led the team with a .424 hitting percentage. In addition, she averaged 1.29 blocks, which included a career-high six blocks against the Rebels. In both matches, she led LSU in hitting percentage and tied for the team high with 11 kills against Arkansas.
For the season, Notre Dame holds a slight lead over the Tigers in kills per game at 15.6 compared with 15.5 for LSU, but the Fighting Irish hold a substantial lead over the Tigers in hitting percentage, .249 to .218. Conversely, LSU leads Notre Dame by more than two digs per game, as the Tigers average 16.8 and the Fighting Irish are posting only 14.7. Although LSU ranks second in the SEC in blocks per game, Notre Dame leads the Tigers in that statistical category as the Fighting Irish are averaging 3.3 blocks per game and LSU is posting 3.0.
“We know that Notre Dame is a big, physical team,” said Flory. “They have players that have played volleyball for a long time and are not just raw athletes. They are the type of team that will make you beat them.”
The Tigers are led by a pair of dominating sophomore middle blocks who also contribute largely to the LSU offense. Brittnee Cooper leads the Tigers and ranks third in the SEC with 1.47 blocks per game. On three occasions this year, she has recorded double-figure blocks, including 11 against Ole Miss last week. Lauren DeGirolamo ranks fourth in the SEC with 1.44 blocks per game, while ranking sixth in the league with a .337 hitting percentage. She is also second on the team with 3.35 kills per game, followed by Cooper in third with 2.76 kills per game.
Kyna Washington leads the Tigers offensively and ranks third in the conference with 4.23 kills per game. The junior needs only four kills to become just the 14th player in LSU history to record 1,000 career digs. In addition, she would become just the fifth junior to accomplish the feat. Washington also leads the team and ranks third in the SEC with a 0.57 service ace per game average. Marina Skender ranks fourth in the league with a 0.50 ace per game average and is less than 70 kills away from also recording 1,000 for her career.
Elena Martinez leads the SEC with an amazing 5.61 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 the four-game win over Arkansas. She currently ranks fourth in single season digs in LSU history with 460, and is only three digs away from moving into third place and just 75 digs from breaking the school single-season record.
Three Notre Dame players are averaging over three kills a game, led by Serinity Phillips with 3.35 kills per game. Adrianna Stasiuk is posting 3.22 kills per game and leads the team with 3.36 digs per game, while Megan Fesl is averaging 3.03 kills per game. Kellie Sciacca leads the Fighting Irish with a .330 hitting percentage among hitters, while Sciacca and Justine Stremick lead the team in blocks per game with 1.33 and 1.38 respectively.
LSU leads the overall series with the Fighting Irish, 4-2. This will be the first time the pair has met in Baton Rouge since 1989. Notre Dame has never won a match in the Maravich Center in two meetings, and the pair has split two neutral meetings in their last two contests. The Fighting Irish swept LSU in 2001 in the Florida Volleyball Challenge before the Tigers knocking of then-No. 8 Notre Dame in five games in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in 2005 played in College Station, Texas, after Hurricane Katrina went through New Orleans.
LSU will return to the road and resume league action at No. 10 Florida and South Carolina this weekend. The Tigers will face the nationally ranked Gators next Friday at 6 p.m. CDT as part of the SEC Regional Sports Network package in Baton Rouge on Fox Sports Southwest, cable channel 38. LSU will then travel to take on the Gamecocks on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CDT. The Tigers lost to Florida, 3-1, after sweeping South Carolina, 3-0, in their first meetings this season.