BATON ROUGE – The No. 23 LSU volleyball team held its annual media day Thursday on the fifth floor of the Athletic Administration Building. Head coach Fran Flory was joined by outside hitter Angela Bensend and libero Lauren Waclawczyk.
Under Flory, LSU is one of only 20 programs to appear in each of the last five NCAA Tournaments en route to the nation’s 11th-best winning percentage during its five-year run. The Tigers were selected to defend their SEC Western Division title by the SEC coaches earlier this week
LSU plays host to its annual Purple & Gold Scrimmage Saturday at 7 p.m., inside the Maravich Center. Prior to the event, the Tigers will hold a free clinic for kids 12 and under starting at 5 p.m., as the defending SEC champions will instruct volleyball basics. To RSVP your spot, email promotions@lsu.edu or call the Marketing & Promotions office at (225) 578-6884 by 4 p.m., Friday.
The Tigers open the 2010 regular season against Pacific, Siena and Texas A&M on August 27-28 as part of the Texas A&M Invitational. Season tickets for the defending SEC champions are on-sale now at www.lsutix.net starting at $40 for adults and $25 for youth ages 3-12.
For all of the latest information on Tiger volleyball, log on to http://www.lsusports.net/volleyball, follow the program’s twitter page at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball and check out the team’s official blog at http://lsuvolleyball.posterous.com.
A transcript of the media day quotes is below.
—
Volleyball Media Day – August 19, 2010
Head Coach Fran Flory
Opening Statement…
“I’d like to start by thanking all of you for saving me from the RV. I think our new promotions person, Daniel Nunes, who is a great addition to our staff, looked around the head coaches and said ‘What crazy fool would do this,’ and I came to mind. I have to tell you; being stuck in an RV is an experience. It was a wonderful experience because not only did it bring great publicity to our program and more twitter followers, but it also showed me what great people we have that I work with in this program. For Coach Miles to take time out of preseason to come over and visit, for Coach Mainieri to come in, and for the Mayor to come in and name a day after LSU volleyball and after myself, it was an amazing personal experience and a wonderful experience for our program. I want to say thank you to all of you and to Daniel, I’m really happy I did that.”
On Preseason Camp…
“Our team came in a week and a half ago. We welcomed six freshmen out of 14 players. You look at that group and think ‘Oh my goodness,’ but the talent level in our gym is high. We lost a great number of great players in Brittnee Cooper, Sam Dabbs, Marina Skender and Lauren DeGirolamo. That was a great senior class and what a difficult task it was for our staff to replace. I think we’ve done it in this freshmen class. I can’t tell you how excited I am for the future of our program and for the season. People say, ‘Well your champions, what are you going to do next,’ well certainly we’re going to try and repeat. We’re going to be young and a lot of people in our league aren’t on the young side of the scale. We’re going to be a little bit of a surprise to people, we’re going to be the unknown factor and we’re excited about that position for our team. This has been through the first week and a half probably the most rewarding and exciting preseason that I’ve had as a coach in 20-plus years. This team has bought into every single thing we’ve asked them to do. They’ve practiced hard, been competitive and challenged each other. They’ve been what I consider a team since the first time they walked into the gym. Unfortunately for us, our incoming freshmen didn’t get to come to summer school because summer school schedules and their play schedules for club didn’t match. So they were still competing for outside teams until July. Walking into the gym the first day was literally the first time that these 14 women went on the court together, and they looked like a team from the first second. That means this group is going to do something special. I don’t know what that special thing is. Are we going to win the SEC? I don’t know. Are we going to be SEC West champions, as the coaches picked us? I don’t know. But I know that this team will play as hard, or harder than any team that we’ve ever had here. They’re as talented as any team that I’ve had since I’ve been back. I came here 12 years ago to rebuild the championship tradition of LSU volleyball, and I think we’ve done it. I think we’re going to continue to get better. Our staff, Steve Loeswick and Jill Lytle Wilson, does a great job. Our returning players have done a tremendous job. We have a challenging schedule, but the right schedule for a young team. We open on the road. The first time we will be here will be September 10th.”
On incoming freshman who will make the most impact …
“The most immediate impact that you all are going to see in terms of lineup on the court is Desiree Elliott. She is going to be a starter for us in the middle. She is fast and dynamic. Last year, we had two types of middles: Michele Williams who ran all over the court and was really quick, and Brittnee Cooper who we just let go over the top of people and there wasn’t a lot of mystery in what we were going to do. Now our entire team offense will actually improve a little bit because Desiree and Michelle are the same type of middle blockers. They’re going to be able to attack all different zones along the net and they’re both going to put the ball on the floor pretty quickly. Nicole Willis will certainly have an impact. Every player that we brought in this year will play and have an impact. There’s not one person we’re considering sitting. Everybody will play and everybody will be significant on this team.”
On the inspiration the players bring to the coaching staff…
“As you get older in coaching, two-a-days are really hard. They’re physically difficult, they’re mentally challenging and there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t been excited to get up and get into the gym with them. They’ve challenged our staff to be better. One of the positives on our staff is that we’re all great teachers and enjoy that phase of coaching. The fact that we can teach from the ground up and that every step is met with great reception, that makes me love my job and my team even more. It’s been an amazing preseason and hopefully we’ll back it up during the season.”
Volleyball Player Quotes
Libero Lauren Waclawczyk
On getting the season going …
“We got in the gym a week and a half ago, we had a great group of six freshmen come in and set a standard. As upperclassmen, we’re trying to set a standard in the gym. I think we’re doing a great job. We have a great work ethic going right now and going hard in the gym. We’re still in two-a-days so we’re pushing ourselves to finish this preseason off strong, which has been a great pre-season. We’re doing the things our coaches are asking us and hopefully it all pay off.”
On having new starters …
“We’re a young team, but we have great experience. They come in and each brings so much, from being vocal leaders to very physical players. Like I said, they’re setting a good standard. I think every single freshman coming in is going to have an impact on the court. The coaches are doing such a great job leading us into the right direction to hopefully end up with some good goals.”
On being 5 time defending SEC West champions …
“Especially after winning the overall SEC last year, it was such an exciting run and such an exciting year, but you can’t sit back and say ‘OK we did that last year,’ you have to push more. We’re gunning for the SEC championship again. We want to defend our SEC West title but the bulls-eye is on our back and we’re ready for it.”
On being captain of the defense …
“As a libero, I try to get the defense going. I try to have the intensity and mindset about defense that nothing is going to hit the floor. We have a really good group of defensive specialists that are here. We have five of us who are setting a good standard in the gym making sure everyone’s on the same page with the defense and making sure that we’re going to touch every ball no matter where it is in the gym.”
On mixing returning starters with freshmen on the court …
“As an upperclassman, you expect that you’re going to have to help the freshmen get used to college life, get used to the college volleyball life. I think we’re doing a great job in that and it does help. We’re mingling together and have a great team going right now. There are so many possibilities when that happens because everyone’s just so positive about it that anything is possible. We’re really excited and have great cohesion right now so we’ll see where it goes.”
Outside Hitter Angela Bensend
On preparing freshmen to work with starters …
“The freshmen have come in and we’ve really been working well together. All the seniors and the returners are stepping up their game. We’re stepping up our leadership to help the freshmen out because they’re new. Everyone’s been working hard and pretty much gelling as a team already.”
On team goals …
“We always have goals to get as far as possible. We expect ourselves to become SEC West champions and hope to compete within the SEC to be the top two or three teams in there. We want to make sure we compete well the entire season so that we get further in the NCAA Tournament.”
On skill strengths of the freshmen …
“A lot of the freshmen have their positions they’re more comfortable with, but our team works well together because we’re so athletic that we can just go in any position. I think it’s going to be really fun season because we can work a lot of different lineups and do a lot of things with our team.”
On importance of social media to LSU Volleyball …
“I think it’s actually very important. She always talks to us as a team about trying to get followers on our Facebook group and Twitter account. She’s been trying to get more followers and I think it really helps to get the word out on when we’re playing. We always want is to try to get more fans and talking about the different promotions that we have to get more people to come to our games.”