BATON ROUGE, La. – With 10 of 11 non-conference matches against teams that finished with no fewer than 19 wins last season and a challenging 18-game Southeastern Conference slate, head coach Fran Flory and the LSU volleyball team released the 2015 schedule today which features 29 matches in all, including a home tournament among 11 games at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Coming off its first 20-win season in four years in 2014, the Tigers take to the court in August looking to extend its postseason run to three consecutive seasons after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year after going 20-9 and finishing third in the SEC.
Backed by returning All-SEC performer Cati Leak and SEC All-Freshman Team outside hitter Gina Tillis, the Tigers return an experienced core of underclassmen, while led by a four-member senior class in Emily Ehrle, Leak, Katie Lindelow and Haley Smith, intent on ending their careers with a deep run in the postseason.
LSU will participate in four tournaments to open the first month and a half of play, featuring opponents that are perennial conference and NCAA tournament qualifiers to get the team prepared for conference play which runs from the middle of September until the end of November.
The Tigers open the season with a tournament at 2014 National Semifinalist Texas for three matches, with a season-opening contest against UC Irvine. In the first of two games on the second day of action, LSU takes on Conference USA tournament finalist Rice before closing the event with a match against the Longhorns.
“We have a very challenging non-conference schedule in front of us. This team is excited to compete at the highest level and we will step onto the court right from the start with a challenging tournament at the University of Texas,” Flory said. “The balance provided with the other three pre-conference tournaments will afford us the opportunity to play a group of teams with very diverse systems and styles of play, and a group of teams who will also have very successful seasons. It is an intentionally challenging schedule and one that our team looks forward to competing through.”
Hitting the road the very next week will take the Tigers to the Bobcat Invitational in Athens, Ohio, where LSU will take on host Ohio first, before earning a rematch of the 2013 NCAA Tournament game against Michigan and a contest with Xavier the very next day.
LSU will play its first two matches in the friendly confines of the PMAC September 11-13, hosting some familiar names in Purdue and Miami (Fla.). LSU will open play on that Friday with the Boilermakers, taking off Saturday, and closing out the weekend with a matchup against the Hurricanes on Sunday.
The last tournament of the season takes LSU to New Mexico for the Lobo Invitational, where the Tigers will square off with LIU-Brooklyn, Cal State Northridge and the Lobos in Albuquerque.
“The goal of these pre-conference tournaments is to not only prepare us for the gauntlet that is the SEC, but hopefully afford us the opportunity later on in the season to not only qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but advance and make a deep run when December rolls around,” Flory said.
As one of just three teams from the Southeastern Conference to qualify for the postseason, the Tigers will be one of the hunted when league play comes around, as LSU will take on the other two teams in 2014 regular season champ Florida and Kentucky. The Tigers will host Florida for the second consecutive year, while playing Kentucky twice, with one of those matches looming large as the final home game of the regular season for the team.
Of the teams LSU will play twice along with Kentucky both home and away, the squad will also have a pair of matches with Arkansas, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama, while having single matches with Georgia, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Missouri and Ole Miss.
The first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament are set for the first week of December at campus sites across the country. Four host sites have been determined for the regionals, with the remaining teams advancing to play in Austin, Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Lexington, Kentucky and San Diego, California.
The NCAA Final Four and National Championship will be held at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
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 and @lsuvb on Instagram.