BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball team participated in its annual media day festivities Monday held inside the media room of the LSU Basketball Practice Facility. Head coach Fran Flory was joined by middle blocker Desiree Elliott, outside hitter Madie Jones and libero Meghan Mannari.
Under Flory, LSU has won seven consecutive SEC Western Division championships highlighted by the overall league championship in 2009. It’s the second longest streak in SEC history, only behind Florida’s 14-year run on top of the SEC’s Eastern Division from 1995-2008.
Elliott, Jones and Mannari each earned All-SEC Second-Team honors in 2011. The Tigers, who are receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 Preseason Poll, are one of only 25 programs nationally to qualify for six of the last seven NCAA Tournaments going back to the 2005 season.
LSU will hold its annual Purple & Gold Scrimmage on Saturday, August 18 at 4:30 p.m. inside the Maravich Center. Admission to the scrimmage and all 2012 home matches at the Maravich Center are free compliments of the Advocate’s “Geaux Free” program.
Leading into the scrimmage, the Tigers will instruct basic volleyball skills starting at 2 p.m. during a free kid’s clinic. The clinic is open to all children eighth grade and under. To reserve your spot, contact Lauren at promotions@lsu.edu by Wednesday, August 15 and include how many children will be attending the event.
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger volleyball, visit www.lsusports.net/volleyball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsuvolleyball along with @lsuvolleyball and @lsucoachfran on Twitter.
A transcript of the media day quotes are below.
LSU Volleyball Media Day
August 13, 2012
HEAD COACH FRAN FLORY
Opening Statement
“This offseason, we have had a few changes. Sam Ojie has joined our staff (as an assistant coach). Steve Loeswick took the head coaching job at the University of North Florida. We are thrilled for him, and we are certainly thrilled for us because Sam (Ojie) is a great addition to our staff. He really completed our staff in a different way. Look for us to be a great blocking team because Sam (Ojie) likes blocking. We started the season talking about perfection. We don’t expect to have a perfect season this year. We don’t expect to go undefeated, but we expect to be perfect within our team. We expect to give everything that we can to each other, play for each other and play for the name that is on the front of the shirt.
I think the most important thing happened this summer. For the first time in my 20-plus years of coaching, my entire team was here in summer school training together – lifting, running and playing. The impact that has brought into our gym has been amazing. I can’t tell you how far ahead we are in training. I can’t tell you how far ahead we are as a team. The coolest part about it is I didn’t make them. I asked them at the end of the spring to be perfect for their team. That means to give for their teammates and do everything they could. At the end of this season in December when we look ourselves in the mirror, to know that we gave everything, and know that we are truly are perfect. The start has been perfect so far.
The other thing that happened in the offseason that was really neat for me to watch was Megan Mannari was chosen to be part of the A-2 program. She did an amazing job. She ended up being the libero on her team. Even more significant for us was a former LSU player and staff member was the head coach of her team – Tonya Johnson (1987-90), who is now the head coach at Georgia Tech. It was pretty cool that we had two LSU players representing that. They won the silver, and barely lost out in the gold match. Megan played a great match but just couldn’t quite finish.
Each year are seniors pick a philanthropy (project) to support through the season. This year is CAAWS. Our kids like animals a lot. They love their pets. We are going to ask that people bring pet supplies and items to our matches. That is our senior push for the season.
Our season started a week ago (with preseason camp). I think the most significant things that have happened are two-fold. First, our freshmen are significant. Our freshmen are good. This is a great freshmen class, maybe one of the best I’ve had. Cati Leak is a two-time (Gatorade) player of the year in the state of Alabama. It would be amazing if she doesn’t start and play six rotations for us. Not many freshmen can come in and do that. Khourtni Fears has come in and done a great job in the middle. She is a tremendous athlete. She is fast and dynamic, and fits right into our system as we had hoped. Katie Lindelow from right down the road in Mandeville (Louisiana) has done a great job. She is still recovering from an offseason knee injury, but she is much further ahead than anticipated. We added a junior college setter Jackie Gerig. She is going to do a great job for us, really help our offense and hopefully push Malorie (Pardo) to stay at the top of her game.
The other thing that happened this offseason is Desiree Elliott did a tremendous job of preparing this summer. She has developed this summer into a six rotation player, which will be a surprise for our opponents. She’s never played back row before, but in practices she has been one of the most consistent so we anticipate her being on the court for six rotations.
There are certain elements you need to have for a team. Senior leadership is vital. I think our seniors Madie Jones, Meghan Mannari and Sam Delahoussaye have really molded this team before we even started. I am really excited about where we are going to go with it. It’s a special group. I don’t say that lightly, and I don’t say that often. You guys know me to be pretty blunt. Last year (at media day), I sat here and told you we were going to struggle a little bit. We were inexperienced in some spots, and I hoped we would defend our SEC Western Division championship run. I expect to do that this year, I expect to be in the top few in the SEC. Tennessee is going to be tough to catch. Tennessee is returning their entire team. They are the reigning champions, and they add an all-conference player who was injured last year. Florida will be young, and Kentucky will again be a great team as well. Adding Missouri and Texas A&M will certainly be great challenges.
The season will be fun. We are going to start with a great pre-conference schedule. We are going to play probably three top-10 teams before we step on the court against an SEC opponent. A little insight into what I think this team is going to accomplish this year. I wouldn’t have scheduled these matches if I didn’t think this group was going to be special.
We are going to play fast as we always have, and we are going to have fun. We still have the Geaux Free program, as does Soccer. So we certainly hope the community will come out and support us. I think you are going to see some special things out of this group.”
On expectations for Desiree Elliott
“Desiree (Elliott) is a great player. The best thing about Desiree is that everybody in the gym knows we are going to set Desiree, and she is still successful. It speaks volumes to our ball control that we can still create opportunities for her. It speaks volumes about our setter, and she knows how to find her because it is a quick connection. But her athleticism and her speed set her apart.”
On bouncing back after not making NCAA Tournament
“It has been a great challenge point. It is something that we as a staff have been able to use. If we look back on our season, we talk about leaving points on the court. Last year if you look at our scores, and you look at what we needed to do to be in the NCAA Tournament, we were probably seven points away. That’s the driving force that makes you do all those sprints in the summer and lift all those weights. It’s been a great driving force. It was a huge disappointment for our program to not be in that.”
On the incoming freshmen
“I expect both Khourtni (Fears) and Cati (Leak) to have a significant impact. Cati is the biggest surprise in this freshmen class. The best part about Cati is that she works as hard as anyone else. She thinks she has to earn everything she gets here. She is probably the star of the future for us.”
On Meghan Mannari‘s USA Volleyball A2 experience
“I think the first thing you gain is a great camaraderie for our sport. You understand that all these people that play this great sport across are really good people first. You develop lifelong friendships in that aspect. The second thing is the confident level that you gain from playing at that level. They are second to none for collegiate players in our country. I think Meghan has a chance to be defensive player of the league this year. There are a ton of positives that come out of that.”
On adding Texas A&M to the league
“Texas A&M is a great program. I coached at Texas A&M long ago. I think a lot of that of that program and that school. I have a lot of respect for them as well. Every time we play them it’s a tough match.”
OUTSIDE HITTER MADIE JONES
On the incoming freshman class…
“I’ve been surprised with all the freshmen. One thing you kind of expect is that the freshmen are going to take time to pick up on some things, but that’s not the case here. We’re all meshing together, and everyone did a great job doing their summer workouts.”
On her expectations for this season…
“We have a tough schedule right off the bat. We know who we’re playing and we know what to expect. But Coach Flory wouldn’t put us in that situation if she didn’t think we could succeed. We talked about this as a team that the first few weekends will show how good we are as a team.”
MIDDLE BLOCKER DESIREE ELLIOTT
On being a leader for the team as a junior…
“As a junior now, I push the younger people. They push me as well. We feel as leaders that it is our job to push them, and we feel comfortable doing that.”
On her expectations for this season…
“Ever since our very last match last season, we’ve had the mindset that we expect to make the NCAA Tournament. So we have the mindset to work hard every single day so that [missing the tournament] doesn’t happen again. This summer when the freshmen came in for our first open gym, we saw we had the potential to be really good. We have the potential to win the SEC and go far in the NCAA’s this year. Everything is clicking really well right now during practice.”
DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST MEGHAN MANNARI
On her expectations for this season…
“Coach Flory mentioned a lot about perfection, and I think that needs to be our main focus. We need to work on our side of the net – we don’t need to focus on who we’re playing. If we do, we need to think we’re just as good as our opponents, and we can beat any team if we play our game. Our focus on the back row is ball control, getting the ball to the setter and making everyone else’s job easier. If we do our job, we can play with any team in the country.”
On the biggest difference between last season and this season…
“I think our freshman class is going to be our biggest difference. They’re coming in right off the bat in the summer and challenging us, not only in volleyball. They came in conditioning wise, and they challenged us to wind sprints. We’re a very competitive team so we’re all fighting to win. They were all fighting very hard to make sure they were lifting just as much as we were lifting, running just as fast as us and getting as many reps as us. I think it’s really paying off for our team during preseason camp.”