BATON ROUGE – The LSU volleyball team wraps up its challenging non-conference slate and travels to the Carolina Classic over the weekend. The Tigers square off with tournament host North Carolina [6 p.m.] on Friday followed by Saturday tilts with Middle Tennessee [9 a.m.] and Western Michigan [4:30 p.m.].
All three matches will have live audio and live stats available for free inside the Geaux Zone at www.LSUsports.net/live, while Friday’s LSU-North Carolina match will be streamed live on www.ESPN3.com.
“All three are quality programs that made the NCAA’s last year and are coached by very good coaches,” head coach Fran Flory said. “LSU and North Carolina have had a run of great matches and it is a fun rivalry, not a negative rivalry. It will be a tough match. It will be very competitive, very tight contest that will be determined by a couple of touches here or there. We will have three great challenges again for our team this weekend.”
LSU (2-4) picked up a road victory over Rice before dropping a pair of hard-fought decisions to No. 7 Purdue and No. 12 Washington at last weekend’s relocated Tiger Classic due to Hurricane Isaac. All four of LSU’s setbacks in 2012 have come versus Top 20 opponents.
“We challenged this team, and this schedule was put together on purpose,” Flory said. “We are pretty excited about how we have matched up with those teams inside the Top 20. Certainly, they are a little bit better than us at this point, but it has given us a nice mark to shoot for. It has given us a great deal of confidence to know we are pretty close.”
Malorie Pardo has set a balanced attack for LSU’s offense as five hitters have posted 1.50 kills per set or better. Her 9.89 assists per set is sixth in the SEC.
Desiree Elliott and Madie Jones are ranked inside the SEC’s Top 20 with 3.22 and 2.94 kills per set, respectively. In both of LSU’s wins, Elliott and Jones have connected for double figure kills.
Cati Leak has started all six matches of her freshman season and made an instant impact for the Tigers. She has turned in an impressive 2.44 kills, 2.33 digs, 0.78 blocks and 0.33 aces per set as a six-rotation player.
Khourtni Fears also has started in all six matches of her freshman campaign and provided a spark on the front row. She has garnered a team-best 22 blocks at a 1.22 per set average, third-best in the SEC.
“Khourtni has already shown that she can play above the net with anybody in the country,” Flory said. “As long as we can create for her offensively, and she understands the transition and the speed of the game it will be a little factor. It is a factor for every freshman walking in the door. Cati has been a tremendous addition and is just a solid six-rotation player. She does it all, and she is physical enough to hang in there.”
Meghan Mannari, a Tiger Classic All-Tournament Team selection from a weekend ago, anchors LSU’s back row defense and has strung together double figure digs in five consecutive outings. She has corralled 4.44 digs per set to hold down sixth place in the SEC rankings.
“We have a few things we have to improve upon,” Flory said. “The timing of our offense is important, and we have just have not found it on a consistent basis. Each week we have improved. I think the best part is our backcourt defense is creating transition opportunities. The best is certainly yet to come, and we are excited to see how far we can go.”
Dating back to the 2005 season, LSU has racked up a 161-59 record and is one of 25 programs nationally to secure bids to six of the last seven NCAA Tournaments.
The Tigers have collected seven consecutive SEC Western 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.
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.
Admission to all 2012 home matches at the Maravich Center are free compliments of the Advocate’s “Geaux Free” program.