Bannister and Rose Earn LSWA Honors

BATON ROUGE – LSU Volleyball’s Taylor Bannister was named the LSWA Player of the Year and Karli Rose earned a spot on the All-Louisiana Second Team.

After being named to the All-SEC team and AVCA All-South Region Team, this is the third postseason award for Bannister. The Tigers’ right-side was previously named the 2017 LSWA Freshman of the Year, the 2018 Player of the Year as well as first-team LSWA honors in 2019. This is the first postseason honor this season for Rose after pacing LSU as the Tigers’ setter throughout the season. In 2019 she was named the LSWA Freshman of the Year.

Throughout the season that spanned the fall and spring Bannister was dominant. She finished the year with 385 kills in 88 sets to average 4.38 kills per set, the second highest mark in the SEC. Her 5.11 points per set were also the second most in the league. 

Bannister played some of her best volleyball towards the latter part of the season, earning back-to-back SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors following LSU’s matches against South Carolina (3/13-3/14) and Georgia (3/19-3/20). 

Against the Gamecocks, Bannister recorded what was at the time a season-high .345 hitting percentage with 25 kills on 55 attempts with just six errors. The following day she had 15 kills to bring her weekend total to 40.

Not only was she named Offensive Player of the Week for her performance against Georgia the next week, but she was also named SEC Player of the Week, which featured potentially the best match of her historic career.

On March 19, Bannister recorded 30 kills, the second most in a match throughout her career, and hit .481. The following day, Bannister moved to No. 2 on LSU’s all-time kills list and with the right-side set to return next year with her additional year of eligibility, she is positioned well to move into the top spot on that list. Bannister sits at 1,640 career kills and sits only behind Nyla Shepherd who had 1,735 kills in her career.

Rose has paced the offense for the Tigers effectively the past two seasons. This year she led LSU with 10 double-doubles with assists and digs. Rose finished the season with 9.52 assists per set (1,800 total assists) for the seventh most in the SEC.

On February 22, Rose was named the SEC Setter of the Week when she averaged 12.12 assists per set over two matches against Arkansas. She had a season-high 54 assists in the latter of the two matches as well as 13 digs.

Rose closed the season out strong, finishing with double-doubles in four of LSU’s final five matches.

Rose proved to be effective attacking as well from time to time, oftentimes catching the defense off guard as she would attack on the second set, changing the pace of the game with 53 total kills. She also added 24 blocks at the net.

2020-21 LSWA All-Louisiana Volleyball Teams

First Team

Pos.    Name                           Class           School                               

RS       Taylor Bannister          Sr.               LSU

S         Avery Breaux               Sr.               Louisiana-Lafayette

OH      Lexie Douglas              Sr.               Tulane

OH      Kailin Newsome          Fr.               Southeastern Louisiana

OH      Hali Wisnoskie            Sr.               Louisiana-Lafayette

MH     Kayla Dinkins               Jr.                Tulane

L         Haley Hoang                So.               Northwestern State          

Second Team

Pos.    Name                                Class       School                               

S         Kailyn O’Neal                   Jr.           Loyola New Orleans

S         Karli Rose                         So.          LSU

OH      Kelsey Bennett                 Jr.           Louisiana-Lafayette

OH      Desire Neal                       Jr.           Dillard                   

OH      Regan Stiawalt                 Jr.           McNeese

MB     Vivica Price-Spraggins      Sr.           Xavier

L         Sophia Ervanian               Fr.           Tulane       

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Taylor Bannister, LSU, RS

LIBERO OF THE YEAR: Haley Hoang, Northwestern State, L

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Semira Blair, Xavier, S

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Kailin Newsome, Southeastern Louisiana, OH

CO-COACHES OF THE YEAR: Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot, Louisiana-Lafayette; Pat Kendrick, Xavier