Editor’s note: Longtime Baton Rouge sportswriter, author and television host Lee Feinswog takes his unique approach to sports to dig deeper into LSU Athletics. Look for these features online and in official athletics department publications throughout the 2014-15 season.
Every other SEC team has played at home.
LSU?
Been flying to West Lafayette, Indiana, and taking a couple of long bus rides, to Tallahassee, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas.
For that matter, most every other major college volleyball team in the country has competed on its home floor.
Not LSU.
Not that head coach Fran Flory didn’t plan things this way, forgoing her annual tournament and giving the Tigers some early season down time.
But September 24 is awfully late to compete on your own court for the first time in what we might call in south Louisiana a non-hurricane year.
Finally, on Wednesday night, the Tigers get to play in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center when they entertain not only No. 14 Kentucky, but also an ESPNU audience.
“The TV part is awesome and it’s the opening night of SEC play,” Flory said. “And the LSU-Kentucky match is always a premiere match.”
Malorie Pardo was almost giddy, describing the “anticipation and excitement” of playing in front of the home crowd for the first time, but also in her last year. For her, it’s the start of what she called a “bittersweet” season, as she and her fellow seniors begin their final campaign.
For Flory, in her 17th year, this is the latest home opener in a while “by choice.”
Hurricanes can truly mess up a home schedule.
In 2005, after Katrina when the PMAC was basically turned into the world’s largest emergency room, the Tigers opened at home on October 14, beating Mississippi State in four, 32-30 in the fourth.
In 2008, when Baton Rouge was battered by Hurricane Gustav and LSU had to cancel its home tournament, the Tigers finally played at home and beat Tennessee on September 26. That year, LSU opened its season at a tournament in Omaha, was set to open at home but was fortunate enough to be a late addition to a tournament at McNeese, and then played in a tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska, before opening SEC play with two matches on the road.
“We’ve had so many hurricanes I can’t tell which year was which,” Flory said with a laugh.
And in 2012, with Hurricane Isaac imminent, LSU moved its tournament to Houston, playing Rice, Washington and Purdue. The Tigers finally played at home that season on September 21 against – wait for it – Kentucky – beating the Wildcats in five.
Which is why Flory says simply, “It will be a great match. The Kentucky-LSU match is always a great match.”
Not that the Tigers haven’t had their share of them so far this season, one in which they stand 5-4. The record is not surprising, considering the level of competition, but they’ve been up and down, to say the least. Of course, they were thrown a curve ball in the preseason when outstanding junior middle blocker Khourtni Fears was lost for the year with a knee injury.
LSU began the season at Purdue, losing in four to then No. 14 San Diego on August 29. That night they beat South Florida in four, before losing to No. 8 Purdue in three.
They took a bus to Florida State, where LSU had the kind of weekend that drives coaches nuts. The Tigers lost to Central Arkansas in five and the scores are worth noting, since LSU won the first game 25-18 and the third 25-12, but lost the second 14-25, the fourth 23-25 and the fifth 13-15.
They came back and beat Samford, but had to go four after losing the second 26-28 and winning the third 25-7. And they lost to the host team, sixth-ranked FSU, in four.
“We’re over-trying a little bit,” Flory said of the inconsistencies. “We’re trying to correct things before they happen and not let the game come to us very well.”
Then last weekend airline difficulties forced the team to ride the bus to San Antonio, but it was worth it: LSU beat highly regarded Baylor twice and also host Texas-San Antonio.
What’s more, Pardo was quick to point out that the bus rides were really good for team bonding and, in today’s digital world, “spending time talking to each other.”
That wasn’t lost on Flory.
“That’s where teams form, on the road,” Flory said. “You have a captive audience and they have to function together. Many of them are roommates, but we don’t typically put the roommates together on the road. They room with somebody different for that team dynamic reason. You’ve got to eat together, you’ve got to live together and you’ve got to ride on a bus forever together. Sometimes when travel gets adjusted you have to adapt. And being able to adapt as team in the middle of a match is obviously a valuable asset and having to adapt in travel seems to help us somehow.”
Which brings us to back to Baton Rouge for the first LSU home match of the season in a few short days. Truly life on the road can be tough and there’s a reason why the home team wins more than the visitors in sports.
“I think everybody’s just happier to be at home,” Flory said. “Everybody comes to watch them. Kids of today want to play in front of their friends and their families and that extra little intrinsic desire to play hard is a little higher.”
While LSU has seven freshmen on the roster, just one, outside hitter Mimi Eugene, will be in the starting lineup on Wednesday. Otherwise, Pardo has experienced players to set. The other outside is junior Katie Lindelow, the middles sophomore Briana Holman and senior Madi Mahaffey, junior right side Cati Leak and junior libero Haley Smith.
The high-leaping Holman leads LSU with 135 kills and is hitting an impressive .374. Leak has 113 kills and Lindelow 60. While Smith, the libero, leads with 143 digs, Lindelow – “our go-to and most stabilizing outside,” Flory said – has 73. The right sides have been busy for LSU, with Pardo notching 93 digs and Leak 84.
Eugene emerged in a big way last weekend. The product of Houston, whose older brother Micah played football at LSU (2011-13), had 13 kills in each match against Baylor.
Flory sees big things ahead for Mimi, whose real name is Mylan.
“Mimi is special and we knew that she would be,” Flory said. “The first time I saw Mimi she was 9 years old and peppering in the corner of the gym. I went to see somebody else and Mimi and (University of Texas sophomore setter) Chloe Collins were peppering in the corner. And somebody pointed to Mimi and said, ‘You’re going to coach her one day.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, right, we’ll see.’
“Mimi is smooth and once she finds her rhythm and finds her comfort level she’s awfully good. The difficulty for Mimi is maintaining that collegiately and be that physical force that she’s used to being.”
Eugene has 46 kills and is hitting just .146, but she will likely get more attempts as the SEC season begins and she progresses.
“I’ve had a good start so far,” Eugene said. “Fran told me I’ve had a really good and consistent preseason. I’m just trying to keep it going.”
The 6-footer, who is the fifth person of her family to attend LSU, gets to play at home for the first time in her college career.
Which is a long time from that day in the Houston gym half her life ago.
“I started playing club ball when I was 8, playing with 12s,” Eugene said with a smile. “I started really early. But, yeah, Fran did see me really young and now I’m actually here and she’s coaching me.”