BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball team hits the road for the first time in 2011 and embarks on an eight-match road swing at the Hotel Encanto Classic over the weekend hosted by New Mexico State.
The Tigers (3-1), who are receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll for the second consecutive week, posted a trio of sweeps during opening weekend.
LSU takes on Arkansas-Little Rock [1:30 p.m.] and Grambling [6 p.m.] on Friday followed by a Saturday match-up with host New Mexico State [3 p.m.]. The Tigers have won 12 straight September matches going back to 2009, including a thrilling 3-2 triumph over New Mexico State last season.
“New Mexico State is a great place to play and a tough opponent for us especially after they took Nebraska to five sets last weekend,” head coach Fran Flory said. “We have two matches before we play them, and we need to sustain a high level of play for longer this weekend. I think we did a great job last weekend of playing freely when there wasn’t much pressure on. We’re young and need to get better in those pressure situations. Hopefully, we’ll take that next step this weekend because our schedule only gets tougher from here.”
Desiree Elliott, Madie Jones and Meghan Mannari took home Tiger Classic All-Tournament honors for their efforts last weekend, while Mannari garnered SEC Defensive Player of the Week.
Elliott connected for double digit kills during two of her three appearances. Her .411 hitting percentage and 3.45 kills per set are ranked fourth and seventh in the SEC rankings, respectively.
Jones joined Elliott among the SEC’s Top 10 and has cranked 3.46 kills per set on a .404 hitting clip. She turned in 10 or more kills during her last three outings at the Tiger Classic.
Mannari reeled in 5.09 digs per set serving as LSU’s libero, the second-most in the SEC. She corralled a career-best 36 digs against Miami. The 36 scoops also were the second-most in program history for a single match, only behind former All-American Elena Martinez’s 43 digs at Alabama during the 2007 season.
“Meghan is going to put up great numbers,” Flory said. “She put in a lot of effort over the summer and was one of our most prepared players coming into preseason camp. We have a core of great passers and great defenders. They all have done a great job of stepping up as a group, and their play in practice conversely makes our offense better as well.”
Michele Williams was strong on the defensive end and tallied a team-high 13 blocks, including eight stuffs against Miami. The eight blocks were one off her career-best, and the Magnolia, Texas, native secured 1.30 blocks per set to rank third in the SEC.
Lauren Waclawczyk became the 11th player in program history to amass the 1,000 digs plateau last weekend during the Louisiana-Lafayette match. She is one of five players to record 2.00 digs per set.
Helen Boyle and Malorie Pardo, a pair of freshmen, have made an instant impact in the starting lineup.
Boyle charted her first career double-double with a strong all-around performance and tallied 16 kills to go along with 20 digs versus Miami.
During her first career start against Louisiana-Lafayette, Pardo not only set the Tigers to a program single match mark but SEC record with a .638 team hitting percentage. She also fueled Elliott, Jones and Williams to career-best hitting clips during the match.
“Our offense seems to be ahead of schedule,” Flory said. “I liked where our middles were over the weekend. We didn’t know we would be able to play that fast. When you’re able set a school and an SEC record for hitting efficiency in the first weekend, that’s pretty impressive.”
Dating back to the 2005 season, LSU has collected a 143-45 record and claimed six consecutive SEC Western Division titles. The Tigers also have tallied the nation’s 11th-best winning percentage and are one of 18 programs nationally to secure six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances since 2005.
Live stats are available for every tournament match at LSUsports.net and fans also can follow in-match updates via the program’s social media outlets at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball or LSU Volleyball on Facebook.