LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory will face a familiar foe when the Tigers (5-4) play their long-awaited home and Southeastern Conference opener against No. 14 Kentucky (10-2) at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the PMAC.
Before Flory became a Tiger, she was a Wildcat, a fact she looks back on with great pride.
“I have fond memories,” Flory said. “I love Lexington. I loved coaching at Kentucky. … My first child was born there, and it will always be true and dear to my heart.”
After a four-year stint as a graduate assistant at LSU, Flory spent one year as Southeastern Louisiana University’s head coach before taking the helm at Kentucky from 1993 to 1997. She brought the Wildcats to the second round of the NCAA Tournament her first season and accumulated a 78-80 record during her four years in Lexington.
Flory said she fell in love with Big Blue Nation, but resisting the allure of purple and gold proved too difficult.
“I told every kid I ever recruited at Kentucky I would never leave Kentucky for any other job unless the LSU job came open,” Flory said. “When the LSU job came open that year, my players were not surprised when I called a team meeting after I was offered the job and said I was going.”
Since returning to LSU in 1998, Flory has amassed 303 wins, leaving her just five short of the program’s all-time mark set by her former mentor Scott Luster.
“This is my home, and this is my dream job,” Flory said. “I feel very, very blessed to be here.”
Most of the people Flory worked with at Kentucky are either retired or elsewhere, but that doesn’t make the contest between the two programs any less special.
Flory lauded Kentucky coach Craig Skinner, saying she has the utmost respect for him and the program he has built.
“Yes, there’s a little more to it because it’s Kentucky and I was there, but the respect that both of us have for each other’s program,” Flory said. “It’s a great matchup and it’s a great event for college athletics period.”
Kentucky (10-2) will prove to be a tough first conference opponent for LSU (5-4), but the Tigers are no stranger to tough opponents.
Three of LSU’s nine contests this season have come against teams currently in the top 25. While they lost all three of those matches, the Tigers feel they turned a corner this past weekend after defeating Baylor twice, along with Texas-San Antonio.
“It was a good confidence builder for us going into SEC play, but we also have a lot of room to grow, which is also exciting,” said junior outside hitter Cati Leak. “If we keep up what we’re doing and play together in our system, everything should click and we should be successful.”
In addition to playing a top-25 team in a conference opener on national television, LSU’s large group of seven freshmen will play its first-ever contest on the Tigers’ home floor.
Freshman outside hitter Mimi Eugene said she and the rest of the freshmen can’t wait to play in front of a home crowd.
“It’s really exciting — especially for me, because I’m a freshman,” Eugene said. “I get to see how everything goes, like the intros and the whole atmosphere of a home game.”
Flory said big games like this one are the reason these freshmen came to LSU, and they need to learn how to channel their excitement into quality play.
“I know that they will be anxious, and I want them to be anxious,” Flory said. “Anxiety before a match is great. Everybody is anxious before a match, and you can use that to your advantage.”