The past two months have not been kind to the LSU volleyball team.
The Tigers went 4-5 in pre-conference play only to see senior libero Meghan Mannari go down with a high ankle sprain before their first Southeastern Conference game of the season.
Mannari suffered the injury walking back from a water break in practice. Senior defensive specialist Sam Delahoussaye fills the void at a position she hasn’t played in two years — and even then, she played a limited role.
“Sam was the only answer [to replace Mannari],” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “Haley [Smith] is too young, Katie [Lindelow] is too young… Sam is the only person I would’ve put in there, just for the security and the experience level.”
The temporary loss of Mannari caused Flory to swap Mannari and Delahoussaye in an attempt to give Mannari’s ankle more rest before returning full-time to libero.
“[Playing libero] was uncomfortable at first,” Delahoussaye said. “But now that I’ve been doing it for a couple games, I’ve been able to get into my comfort zone. It doesn’t really matter what position I play.”
Flory said she is being cautious with Mannari’s return as this isn’t the first time she has had to fight injuries while at LSU.
Mannari required season-ending surgery after tearing her meniscus in the weeks preceding fall camp her freshman year.
“Meghan’s not going to step into the libero role the first time she steps on to the court,” Flory said. “When she’s comfortable and mobile and able to play the way we need her to play, she’ll be back in that different color jersey.”
The Tigers had to overcome the transition from Mannari — who posted 518 digs last season — to Delahoussaye without so much as a full practice before they opened conference play against Alabama on Sept. 14.
“It’s tough because we didn’t even get to practice our reception patterns,” Flory said. “It kind of set her up to fail, but I think she weathered the storm pretty well. The problems weren’t with Sam, the problems were with missing Meghan.”
Mannari returned to the court for the first time in three weeks against Georgia at the defensive specialist position.
However, after the third set, Flory decided to move Mannari back to libero.
“We made that switch today as a positional switch,” Flory said. “We needed a libero to play on the court at left back. In other matches, we needed people to dig at middle back, and Sam would have been the libero. Meghan’s not back to herself yet, she’s about a step slow.”
Flory did not comment on which senior would start at libero in Saturday’s game against South Carolina.
“I honestly don’t have a preference,” Mannari said. “If it’s working with Sam at libero, I don’t want to change anything. I would love to play libero and be on the court and help this team but whatever works best… It’s always a competition to make your teamates better… It’s a challenge to play against each other and make the team better.”
