BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU volleyball team will kick off a two-match conference road swing beginning on Friday evening, with a date with the Georgia Bulldogs at 6 p.m. CT at the Ramsey Center in Athens.
The Tigers open the month of October with a pair of matches this weekend starting with the Bulldogs, before heading to take on the Auburn Tigers on Sunday afternoon. Friday’s match will be streamed live online via SEC Network+ via WatchESPN, with continuous updates from the team’s Facebook and Twitter pages, with links to live stats and video on the homepage at LSUsports.net.
LSU heads into the weekend with a bit of steam after defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks last Sunday at home, going into its first pair of league road tests with a 5-8 overall record and an even 1-1 mark against Southeastern Conference opponents after the first week of action concluded. The Tigers have won four of their last five matches overall, looking to carry that momentum further along this season.
“I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence and will continue to gain confidence as we increase our level of comfort on the court together,” head coach Fran Flory said. “I think we’ve grown each week, trained better and our results have improved because of that.”
By Sunday’s end, LSU will have played more than half of its 2015 schedule up until that point, hoping to expound on this run by taking it into the latter portion of the schedule that will see the team face the rest of the challenging SEC slate.
“I think as we’ve watched the results in the SEC after the first week, we understand that there are a ton of winnable matches out there for us,” Flory said. “We might not have the best record, but the potential for what we can accomplish can be special if we stay the course. The key is by continuing to buy in, work hard and progress.”
The Tigers were able to do that by rallying after a tough, five-set defeat to Arkansas by sweeping the Gamecocks just a few days later inside the Maravich Center. It was the third sweep of the season for the Tigers, and the team’s third in the last two weeks alone.
Consistency from the offense has helped LSU, as the group has finished matches hitting above .200 in five of the last six, a mark they hadn’t topped through the first seven matches previously. The squad has also cut down on its errors through those contests, committing just 14 errors on Sunday which tied the season-low for the group.
While the offense has been getting better, the lineup has seen a bit of shuffling with minimal drop-off in production from the depth of the bench. Three players earned double figure kills in the match against the Razorbacks, while a player that played in just two sets led all players in the following contest.
Cati Leak was one of those players that had double-digit kills against Arkansas with 15, tying Rodriguez for the team lead as the freshman finished with a blistering .314 hitting clip. But on Sunday, after having just two kills in the previous match, Gina Tillis led all players with 14 against the Gamecocks, tying her season high.
Leak leads the team averaging 3.63 kills per set on the year, averaging 3.00 in league play, with Katie Lindelow second on the team, earning 12 kills against Arkansas and is averaging 2.63. That duo also combine for 27 of LSU’s 61 service aces, as well as sitting second and third on the team in digs.
After those two matches alone, LSU is already hitting better in league play, seeing over a 50-point higher difference. That number has also been helped by the increasing comfort level of the setters in Cheyenne Wood and Lindsay Flory, who both had double-digit assists in each of the two matches.
While the back row of the defense has weathered much of the pressure so far, the group got a bit of a break at the net last week, as although LSU continues to lead the conference in digs, the play at the net was superb out-blocking its opponents 23-12. Averaging 2.14 blocks per set on the year, the Tigers averaged nearly three in just two matches at 2.88.
Junior Tiara Gibson reclaimed the blocks lead after producing a new season-high six along with Tillis on Sunday, averaging 0.80 per set. Gibson is just ahead of senior Emily Ehrle‘s 27, earning seven of those in a career day last Wednesday.
Senior defender Haley Smith averaged 4.16 digs per set in the two matches, while averaging 4.65 in all competitions which is top five individually in the conference.
This will be the only meeting between the Tigers and Bulldogs this season, as LSU is playing in the Ramsey Center for the first time since the 2013 season. LSU has won eight of the last 10 meetings against Georgia, including the last two with LSU earning the only win between the two teams last season in four in Baton Rouge.
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.
AT A GLANCE – Georgia
MATCH
LSU (5-8, 1-1 SEC) at Georgia (5-8, 0-1 SEC)
DATE/TIME
Oct. 2 – 6 p.m. CT
FACILITY
Ramsey Center
AVCA RANKINGS
LSU – NR
Georgia – NR
MULTIMEDIA
LSUsports.net – live stats
LIVE STREAM
SEC Network+
TV
None