BATON ROUGE – The No. 16 LSU volleyball team plays host to its annual pink match in support of breast cancer awareness Friday against Mississippi State. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Maravich Center.
“Breast cancer awareness is always an important cause,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We’re not fundraising; we are trying to raise awareness. This is more of a come and show your support event. If you wear pink, you get in free. Our uniforms will be pink, we’re hopeful that we will have a great turnout.”
Last time out, LSU (19-2, 10-2 SEC) notched a pair of road victories over Georgia and Auburn to open the second half of the SEC schedule. The Tigers enter Friday’s match tied for first place with Ole Miss in the SEC Western Division race.
LSU’s defense has held its opponents to a SEC-best .167 hitting percentage. On eight occasions, the Tigers have limited the opposition to under a .150 clip.
Lauren Waclawczyk, Sam Delahoussaye and Meghan Mannari have anchored LSU’s back row to a 66 percent sideout percentage in SEC play. LSU has won 27 of 28 sets when compiling a 70 percent ratio or better on the season.
Waclawczyk has reeled in 4.10 digs per set to rank sixth among the SEC’s Top 10. She also has fired in team-high 23 aces. Delahoussaye and Mannari have teamed for 18 double digit dig performances and both have secured over 2.55 digs per set.
Offensively, LSU revamped its lineup and the Tigers responded with a pair of solid efforts. Brittney Johnson has passed out a SEC-best 10.75 assists per set and compiled a team-high nine double-doubles. The Tigers have had three or more players record 10 or more kills in six of their 10 SEC victories.
“The bottom line is that we are asking Britney to be a great athlete,” Flory said. “Great athletes are adaptable, they rise to occasions, and I think she’s done that. It’s hard to manage what we’re asking her to do. We’re running one of the fastest offenses in the country. She has to make split-second decisions and do well all the faces of the game. It’s been a big challenge, but she has grown up and matured.”
Angela Bensend has hammered home double figure kills in 18 of 21 matches. Her 4.17 kills per set headline the SEC and rank No. 26 in the nation. The Tigers are 31-2 when Bensend reaches that feat.
Michele Williams got back on track highlighted by 17 kills on a .556 hitting percentage at Georgia. She has popped 3.24 kills per set and is ninth in the SEC. The Magnolia, Texas, native has surpassed the .300 attack plateau in 14 matches and her .342 individual clip is eighth-best in the league.
Desiree Elliott is ranked among the SEC’s Top 5 with a .375 hitting percentage to go along with 1.29 blocks per set in conference play. She has tallied four or more stuffs in eight consecutive matches.
Tania Schatow equaled a career-high with seven kills on a career-best .700 hitting percentage last time out at Auburn.
“I think all of our kids can play multiple positions, and that is what we recruit,” Flory said. “We have now tweaked our system to be able to use all those attributes. I’m really proud of the way our kids rallied and played with great emotion. We trusted them, you risk a lot when you change a lineup at this point in the season. It’s either high risk and high reward or low risk and you keep getting better. I think we could have an even better run at the end of the season than we did in the beginning.”
Mississippi State (11-11, 3-8 SEC) is paced by Caitlin Rance, who has cranked consecutive 17-kill efforts and her 3.67 kills per set are fourth in the SEC. In the middle, Ashley Newsome is at the top of the SEC with 1.27 blocks per set and put together three straight 100-stuff seasons. Kayla Woodard is fourth in MSU history with 1,275 career digs and her 4.42 per frame average is fourth-highest in the SEC.
“First off, being home is a huge deal, and we’re thankful to be back off the road,” Flory said. “We’ve recovered and are already back into great flow. There are no easy SEC matches. Everybody is capable of beating anybody else. Mississippi State is a team that plays with great passion, has great leadership and certainly great coaching.”
Live video and live stats for Friday’s match will be available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. Fans also can follow live in-match updates on the team’s official blog at http://lsuvolleyball.posterous.com.