BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball program has wrapped up its spring season and turned its full attention to preparing for the upcoming 2011 campaign this fall.
The Tigers won seven of their eight spring matches highlighted by triumphs over Auburn, Oklahoma and Wichita State, a trio of 2010 NCAA Tournament teams. LSU also had a strong showing at 2010 NCAA Final Four participant Texas.
“Our team worked very hard during the spring season and made some very positive strides in several areas,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Offensively, we were able to speed up an offensive system that was already pretty fast and dynamic. Defensively, we developed into a team that is very difficult to score on. Positionally, our defensive specialists had the most outstanding spring of all of our players, and they will be the leaders of our team next fall. We had several players take very positive steps offensively and in addition to speeding up our offense we became a more efficient offensive team within our system.”
LSU returns 10 letterwinners for the 2011 campaign sparked by AVCA All-South Region Honorable Mention pick Michele Williams and All-SEC First-Team performer Desiree Elliott.
The Tigers also bring back Sam Delahoussaye, Meghan Mannari and Lauren Waclawczyk on their back row after the trio racked up an efficient 65 percent sideout clip over its 20 SEC matches.
LSU heads into the 2011 season as one of only 18 programs nationally to qualify for the last six NCAA Tournaments dating back to 2005.