BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU volleyball team returns to action on Wednesday night traveling to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. in Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville.
The match will be televised live on the SEC Network with Tiffany Greene and Missy Whittemore serving as commentators, as fans will be able to stream the match online through WatchESPN. A link to the stream, as well as live stats, will be available at LSUsports.net, with updates provided through the team’s social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
With only six matches remaining, the Tigers are looking to finish the year strong and snap their current three-match losing skid on Wednesday against the Razorbacks, hoping to bounce back after suffering a defeat in three sets to the Missouri Tigers Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge.
LSU has been beset by injuries now in the final month of the regular season, re-tooling the lineup that now features a mix of veteran stalwarts and new blood in the form of true freshmen coming together to forge into another week of SEC play, as the squad will begin another set of road tests.
“I think the players have dealt with this adversity very, very well,” head coach Fran Flory said. “I’m extremely proud of them. There are a lot of teams – especially against some of the teams we’ve played – that would have shut it down and not fight, but I think the fact that we’ve already overcome a lot since the season began shows their character and is another step in their overall progression as leaders later on in their careers.”
Although the team didn’t have one of its typical offensive performances against Missouri on Sunday, the Tigers were able to find a way to get more people involved as nine of the 10 players that played in the contest had at least one kill, with seven having multiple.
The Tigers were paced by senior Emily Ehrle and freshman Katie Kampen, who earned her first start at LSU against Missouri. The two finished with seven kills each, as Ehrle has five matches with seven or more kills, as she also leads the team in blocks with 50 on the year. Kampen netted not only a new season high in kills on Sunday, but earned her first double figure dig match with 12, as she was just one of two LSU players to earn double digits.
For the fourth time this year, Lindsay Flory led the setters in assists as she had 14, adding in five digs, two blocks and two kills in the match. Lindsay has earned at least two blocks in a match 11 times this season, earning double-figure assists 18 times. Cheyenne Wood leads the team averaging 5.43 assists per set, as she had 13, while having two of LSU’s four service aces in the contest, upping her season total to 14 which is currently second on the team.
With her 19 digs on Sunday, senior Haley Smith now stands eight scoops away from becoming LSU’s all-time digs leader, as she currently has 1,520 for her career heading into the match. The Chalmette High School product is in the top five in the league in the category, averaging 4.55 per set with 396 on the season.
One of the more pleasant surprises off the bench on Sunday was the play of freshman Brittany Welsh. The six-foot-four Californian registered a new season-high four kills against Missouri, but made her play count at the net as she stopped four shots, including having two on the solo end. In eight matches this season, Welsh is averaging a block per set.
The Tigers look to split the season series against the Razorbacks with a win, suffering a tough, 3-2 defeat to Arkansas at home back in October. LSU and Arkansas have been two teams that have been unable to settle the score in nothing less than four sets, as each of the last four meetings have needed five to decide a winner, with the two before that going four sets.
“We know what they do, and although they’ve made some changes with their personnel, they’re still a physical team that’s big, fast and athletic,” Fran said. “We have to turn it into a ball-control match and play our type of game, extending rallies, and if we can do those things then we can give ourselves a chance.”
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 – Arkansas
MATCH
LSU (9-14, 5-7 SEC) at Arkansas (15-9, 5-7 SEC)
DATE/TIME
Nov. 11 – 7 p.m. CT
FACILITY
Barnhill Arena
AVCA RANKINGS
LSU – NR
Arkansas – NR
MULTIMEDIA
LSUsports.net – live stats
LIVE STREAM
WatchESPN
TV
SEC Network