On Sunday, Nov. 27, the NCAA aired its annual Selection Show for the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament on ESPNU. The LSU Tigers, along with many other volleyball teams in the country, waited to see if they would hear their name called to be included in the tournament, a feat the program has not accomplished since 2017.

Much to the excitement of the team and staff, who exploded into celebration upon hearing the news, LSU was announced to have received an at-large tournament berth. It represents a great accomplishment for Head Coach Tonya Johnson and her staff in their first year with the program after taking over for long-time Head Coach Fran Flory.

“I feel like the team has put in the time and the effort and the hard work to be rewarded with this, and I couldn’t be more excited and proud of a group of young women and what they stand for. I’m super excited that they represent LSU,” said Johnson.

LSU will face Hawai’i in the first round, the No. 8 seed in the Stanford regional. Hawai’i finished the regular season with a record of 22-6, having won their final 12 games and becoming the Big West champions with a 19-1 conference record. The Rainbow Wahine are ranked No. 36 in the latest RPI rankings, compared to No. 48 for LSU.

The match will be hosted in Stanford, California, as part of the Stanford subregional, and the winner of this game will go on to face the winner of Stanford-Pepperdine in the second round. Stanford is the No. 1 seed of the region and the No. 4 seed overall in the tournament.

LSU finished the regular season with a 15-13 record, which was their first winning record since the 2019 season. That record included a 9-9 split in SEC play, which LSU kicked off by recording marquee wins against fellow tournament teams Arkansas and Kentucky. Overall, LSU finished the season with one win against a team ranked in the top 10 in RPI and four top 50 wins.

However, a 2-5 close to the season for LSU, including being swept twice by Georgia in its final two games, had the possibility of a tournament berth looking uncertain. Johnson lamented the series against Georgia as a lost opportunity to “control our own destiny.” That left LSU with no room for comfort on Selection Sunday. At the end of the day, their work this season culminated in a postseason berth.

For Johnson specifically, the tournament appearance is her first as a head coach since 2009 with Georgia Tech. Before this season, Johnson spoke about needing to adjust her approach to coaching in her second stint as a head coach, particularly in giving herself more grace.

“I stayed true to me and stayed true to who I wanted to be throughout this process. I’m really proud of myself for the way we handled situations and the way we’ve handled this team and continued to make sure that we were pushing them and making them better every day.”