BATON ROUGE — With a half-match lead over Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference Western Division standings, the LSU volleyball team will travel to Lexington, Ky., to take on the SEC-leading and 21st-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at Memorial Coliseum at 6 p.m. CDT on Friday.
LSU (12-7, 7-5 SEC) dropped a five-set match to No. 11 Florida on October 24 but bounced back on Sunday with a five-set victory over South Carolina in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Kentucky (20-3 overall) is tied with Florida atop the SEC standings with an 11-1 record as the Wildcats swept Mississippi State and Alabama on the road last week. The win over the Crimson Tide gave Kentucky 20 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1992-93.
Kentucky is led in kills by sophomore Sarah Mendoza who ranks fifth in the conference in kills per set with 3.48. Defensively the Wildcats are paced by freshman Becky Pavan who is second in the league in blocks per set with 1.33.
“Kentucky is the most veteran and athletic team in the league,” LSU head coach Fran Flory said. “Kentucky has played themselves into a chance to win the conference outright.”
Brittnee Cooper led the Tigers last weekend against Florida and South Carolina. Against the Gators Cooper tallied a career-high 24 kills to go along with a season-high 12 blocks. Against South Carolina Cooper racked up 18 kills and nine blocks to lead LSU to the victory over the Gamecocks. On the season Cooper ranks first in the conference in blocks per set with an average of 1.47.
Freshman Michelle Williams has been a force as of late as she recorded 26 kills combined against Florida and South Carolina, including eight blocks against the Gamecocks.
Kyna Washington is seven kills shy of surpassing Lisa Smith for sixth place on the school’s all-time career list as she has 1,374. Washington has 143 service aces and is two shy of a tie for 10th on the all-time list with Luciana Reis.
“We match up with Kentucky fairly well athletically,” Flory said. “If we ball control well enough to get the ball into our setter’s hands and we are in system more than Kentucky is, then we will have a great opportunity to be successful. If we aren’t able to control the ball, we will have a rough time. We have to prepare for a tough, long match because they play great defense, and they are going to keep the ball off the floor forever.”
LSU and Kentucky met on September 28 in Baton Rouge, and the Wildcats extended their overall lead in the series to 25-21 after beating the Tigers, 3-0.
After the match against Kentucky, LSU will face Tennessee on Sunday in Knoxville at 12:30 CT.