The LSU volleyball team took a big step to rebound from its disappointing 2015 season during the November signing period, signing five standout athletes to next year’s roster.
LSU coach Fran Flory said she is mostly excited about the athletic ability, skill set and winning tradition middle blockers Jacqui Armer and Jariel Tureaud, outside hitters Sydney Mukes and Milan Stokes and setter Anna Zwiebel will bring to the program.
“We wanted a diverse group in terms of skill set in the game,” Flory said. “Every one of them brings something different, and hopefully, all of them fit into our system as planned and melt into a really good basis for the future of the program.”
She said the team’s biggest need remains at the setting position. The coaching staff temporarily solved that problem by making sophomore Cheyenne Wood a setter along with freshman Lindsay Flory in the beginning of the season, but Louisville, Kentucky, native Zwiebel is expected to take the position to new heights.
Flory said Wood will be given the opportunity to return to her original position as defensive specialist, while Lindsay will have the spring to develop.
“Anna brings tenacity and a great volleyball IQ,” Flory said. “She has a super fast release, so I think she’s going to force some problems. It’s just a matter of how fast she matures.”
Mukes and Stokes will also add to the team’s quickness. Flory said the two outside hitters play a similar style to what we have seen from sophomore outside hitters Mimi Eugene and Gina Tillis, which shows how much the game has developed from a physical
standpoint.
With the five freshmen joining the program, the team loses a big senior class, leaving current junior middle blocker Tiara Gibson as next year’s only senior.
While Gibson is preparing to lead the team, Flory is more excited about the program’s current sophomores.
“I think the junior class is what’s really important and shapes the dynamic of a team,” Flory said.
“Although Tiara will be a senior, she won’t be a four-year senior for our program. She’s still growing and maturing with what we want her to do.”
Gibson said it’s certainly a different situation, but she doesn’t think her two years of experience at South Dakota State University should be discredited.
“I’m not going to be perfect,” Gibson said. “You’re only a senior once, so if you’d have another chance, you’d probably do it better, but I’m going to do the best job I can for this team I care so much about.”
Gibson said she is excited for the new signing class and said due to the coaches selective recruiting, she expects everybody to get along automatically. Personally, she plans to get to know the recruits and find out how she can interact to get the best out of them during later visits and the summer.