BATON ROUGE — After dropping a heart-breaking, five-set match to eighth-ranked Florida on Friday, the LSU volleyball team will look to get back on track against South Carolina at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Despite falling to the Gators, LSU (11-7) remains on top of the Southeastern Conference Western Division standings as the Tigers are tied with Ole Miss at 6-5 in conference play.
The Gamecocks enter the match with a 16-5 overall record and a 7-4 conference mark. Like LSU, South Carolina lost in five sets, 3-2, on Friday to Georgia in Athens. A day earlier, South Carolina swept South Carolina State, 3-0, in Columbia.
“Our team enjoys playing South Carolina,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “It’s an up-pace and exciting match. We played very poorly at South Carolina the first time we played them, and hopefully our team is looking for a chance to redeem ourselves.”
South Carolina is led by junior Ivana Kujundzic who is tops on the team in kills with 275 and is second on the team with 214 digs. Back on Sept. 19, the Gamecocks swept LSU, 3-0, to hand the Tigers’ their first conference loss of the season. With the win, South Carolina inched ahead in the all-time series as they hold a 13-12 advantage on the Tigers.
“We know they are a very good team and have a great deal of confidence,” Flory said. “They believe they are going to win every time they step onto the court, so we are going to have to match their mental toughness and their attitude to have a chance to beat them.”
Individually, senior Kyna Washington will look to build upon her career number of kills as the Houston native moved into eighth place in career kills in LSU history with 1,362. Washington needed three against the Gators to move up the charts, and she recorded eight. In addition, senior Elena Martinez moved past Detra Brown into sixth place in career digs with 1,197 when she finished with 23 digs against Florida.
Brittnee Cooper shined against Florida as she smashed a career-high 24 kills with a .326 hitting percentage and posted a season-high 12 blocks to lead the Tigers.