In part one of our series previewing the 2015 LSU volleyball team, head coach Fran Flory gives an outlook on the team and what to expect in 2015.
On October 3 of last year, the LSU volleyball team was two games under .500 and came off of a stretch of games against three of the top four teams the Southeastern Conference would produce for the NCAA Tournament later that season. Charged with finding a solution to the team’s woes, Fran Flory – then in her 17th year at the helm – took a different approach with this group than previous ones, spending time in practice and on the road reading the bestselling book “The Energy Bus” to the squad.
The book, and the bonding time, proved to be the thing the team needed to break the slump and finish the season stronger than where it started, rattling off a blistering 11-straight wins during the most crucial point of the season in league play to qualify for the tournament for the second consecutive year, winning a postseason game to boot.
“Anytime you get to the NCAA Tournament you have to be satisfied with where you went, but this team was not satisfied and felt like they could have continued to play and get further,” Flory said. “That was some of the things we talked about this fall, in the expectation of not only making it but going further than we’ve been. Last year was fun and they had a great mission, but I think this year’s group is going to be much closer, more tight-knit and when you have that loyalty to each other the results can be great and that’s what we’re expecting out of this group.”
Although the team closed the book on the 2014 season in Oregon last December, many of those same elements can be found in the 2015 version of the Tigers heading into the new year, as the themes of unity, togetherness and teamwork have been etched into the core of returning players and newcomers that hope to build upon last year’s success, while creating a lasting legacy of their own which continues the storied history that is LSU volleyball.
Flory begins her 18th season as the head coach of the Tigers, molding a squad that returns 11 total letterwinners and five starters from that team from a season ago, featuring a four-member senior class of starters and a key mix of underclassmen that all saw time during stretches last year.
“I think we’re going to have a great season. This team is senior-led and they are going to make sure that they can sustain the level of success that they helped bring back when they all arrived,” Flory said. “When they joined the team we were not in the NCAA Tournament. They helped bring us back there and back to the top of the SEC and I don’t think they will be denied from keeping us there.”
While the returning pieces of the team already have a leg-up with regards to continuity, the returning Tigers will be pushed harder than ever with the addition of six talented newcomers that bring varying ranges of prep success and high-level skill sets that will help round the team into form with added depth at key positions.
“When you add youth to your team I think you’re always hoping that they can come in and contribute in ways that helps the team grow overall as a group,” Flory said. “This group came in right away and bought into what we were doing and what we wanted to accomplish and I have no doubts that they will do whatever they can to accomplish the goals the upperclassmen set forth at the start of the year.”
After two-week period of pre-season training, the Tigers will embark on its first week of in-season preparation at the end of the month as LSU will open its challenging slate with a bang participating in the American Campus Classic hosted by Texas in Austin. The 2015 schedule is 29-games filled with conference and tournament contenders from last season on the docket, with 11 non-conference clashes leading into an 18-game SEC slate in late September.
“Our schedule is certainly challenging, and we don’t shy away from playing a tough schedule because at the end of the day you either play your way in, or out, of the NCAA Tournament with your first three or four weeks of the season,” Flory said. “We feel like we have the right schedule, win the right matches and put ourselves in a position to help the league first and ourselves second.”
UC Irvine, Rice and Texas await LSU in the opening week of the season, traveling the next week to take on Ohio, Michigan and Xavier. The Tigers will host its first tournament after a hiatus last year by bringing in Purdue and Miami, before closing out the non-conference schedule in New Mexico against LIU-Brooklyn, CSUN and the host Lobos.
Some of the most featured games by the time SEC play rolls around will feature a pair of matches against Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky – matches that either went four sets or greater last season – while having another home contest against Florida set for the last home weekend of the year.
“I think our league overall is going to be very tough this year, as the conference returns some amazing athletes who were freshmen just a few years ago and have now matured into juniors and seniors with experience,” Flory said. “I think the SEC is going to have one of its best years ever because of the growth and maturity of all of these amazing players that know how to play the collegiate game and make an impact when it matters most.”