BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball team looks to break out of a two-match losing skid and maintain its spot at the top of the SEC Western Division Friday versus South Carolina. First serve is slated for 6 p.m. CDT at USC’s Volleyball Competition Facility.
LSU (10-5, 3-2 SEC) has won five straight in the series over the Gamecocks (9-6, 0-5 SEC) highlighted by a quartet of sweeps during the last two seasons. Under the direction of first-year head coach Scott Swanson, South Carolina has already surpassed its win total from 2010.
The Gamecocks are fueled by Juliette Thévenin, a 2010 All-SEC Freshman pick. She is fourth in the SEC with 3.85 kills per set to go along with 3.62 digs per set to claim eight double-doubles on the season. Defensively, Paige Wheeler has corralled 4.34 digs per set, third-highest in the SEC.
“South Carolina is a much improved team and hungry for a SEC win,” head coach Fran Flory said. “This will be a huge weekend for us because road wins in the SEC are at a premium. They determine divisional and conference championships along with postseason opportunities. We’re going to have to be ready to play our best volleyball on Friday night.”
LSU’s trio of Desiree Elliott, Madie Jones and Michele Williams has combined to rack up 66 percent of team’s kills on the season. All three players are ranked among the SEC’s Top 10, the Tigers are the only SEC school to have that impressive feat.
Elliott’s 3.50 kills and 4.19 points per set are fifth in the SEC. The reigning SEC Freshman of the Year has collected 10 or more kills in 11 straight matches dating back to the opening weekend. The Cypress, Texas, native also is second on the team and chipped in 0.94 blocks per set.
Jones has elevated her play to 4.05 kills per set in conference action, third-best in the SEC. She has powered home double-digit kills in seven of her last eight outings. Defensively, Jones has totaled 18 of her 26 blocks during her last six matches.
Williams has reached 10 or more kills in seven of her last nine efforts. She enters Friday’s match 91 kills away from becoming the 18th player in program history to secure 1,000 career kills. During last year’s meeting in Columbia, Williams ripped a career-high .769 hitting percentage sparked by 10 kills on 13 kills against South Carolina.
Malorie Pardo and Helen Boyle have tallied eight of LSU’s nine double-doubles on the season. Pardo has distributed the second-most assists in the SEC at 11.57 helpers per frame. However, she was limited well below her season average at under 10 assists per set last weekend.
“Last weekend was not successful and made us reevaluate some things,” Flory said. “You always learn more after a loss than when you win. It made us think of how we can create better opportunities for our better players. We think we might have an answer to that. The bottom line is our team is refocused, they recommitted and are now ready for the second phase of the first half of SEC play.”
LSU’s back row of Sam Delahoussaye, Meghan Mannari and Lauren Waclawczyk has been a big part of the Tigers SEC-leading 16.89 digs per set to start league action. The trio also has slapped 52 of the team’s 91 aces on the season.
Mannari has recorded double figure scoops in 12 of her 14 appearances, and her 4.40 digs per set rank second in the SEC, while Waclawczyk enters Friday’s match 42 digs away from passing Detra Brown [1983-86] for the No. 8 position on LSU’s all-time list.
“Last weekend was really the first time on the season we’ve been completely overmatched in the serving-and-passing battle,” Flory said. “Sam, Meghan and Lauren took that personally. They’ve been in the gym extra this week and are going to do everything they can to keep that from happening again.”
Live audio and live stats for Friday’s match are available for free at LSUsports.net inside the Geaux Zone. Fans also can follow in-match updates via the program’s social media outlets at http://twitter.com/lsuvolleyball or LSU Volleyball on Facebook.