BATON ROUGE — Strong performances from senior leaders Elena Martinez and Kyna Washington highlighted the LSU volleyball team’s intrasquad scrimmage in the Maravich Assembly Center on Monday evening.
Washington posted a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs, while Martinez recorded 25 digs to lead the team.
“Kyna showed great maturity offensively tonight and great balance in all phases of the game,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Elena really stabilizes our ball control and has for three years. She makes the great play when we need to have it and she continued that tonight.”
Freshman Lauren Waclawczyk and sophomore Haley Reuther also impressed the coaches with their defensive efforts. Waclawczyk picked up 17 digs and Reuther chipped in 22.
“Our ball control is very solid,” Flory added. “We’ve really focused on that, and the number of digs we had tonight is indicative of the fact that we’re going to be able to control the ball and keep it off the floor. We haven’t spent a lot of time on our offense yet, so that portion of our game needs improvement. But given that we haven’t spent much time focusing in team blocking, our defense was great tonight.”
Both LSU setters dished out 30-plus assists, sophomore Brittney Johnson with 32 and junior Sam Dabbs with 34.
Other notable stats included 12 digs from Angela Bensend and nine kills from Tania Schatow. Lauren DeGirolamo recorded six blocks while Brittnee Cooper had four of her own.
The Tigers open their season Aug. 28 in the Bluejay Invitation hosted by Creighton in Omaha, Neb.