In most cases, a team in a tough conference would hope to have a soft non-conference schedule in order to garner a few easy wins early in the season and gain some momentum. But according to LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory, the tougher, the better.   “Last year, part of the reason we weren’t in the [NCAA] Tournament was our strength of schedule outside of conference wasn’t very good,” Flory said. “We played some quality teams, but the tournaments we tried to get into did not end up being what we anticipated.” The opening weekend for the Tigers reflects this philosophy, as they travel to Austin, Texas, for the Longhorns Classic. The Tigers begin their season going toe-to-toe with No. 2 Texas on Friday at 6 p.m., No. 19 San Diego on Saturday at 9 a.m. and Cal Poly on Saturday at 4 p.m. It would be easy to allow such a tough weekend to overwhelm an LSU team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament last season, but Flory’s squad is not focusing on its opponents. “We’re just doing our normal thing and focusing on us right now,” said freshman outside hitter Cati Leak. “We just want to take it one point, one set, one match at a time. LSU’s greatest challenge will likely come in its Friday night matchup against Texas. Coach Flory acknowledged her squad would have to play well to keep up with the Longhorns, citing the Texas opponents’ physicality as a primary concern. But the Tigers aren’t letting the task of matching up against the No. 2 team distract them from their goals this weekend. “We know we have to prepare for three teams, not only one,” said senior libero Meghan Mannari. “We’re ready to just play our game, stay on our side of the net and do what we can.” With other matches against No. 19 San Diego, which is returning all but one of their players from last season, and Cal Poly, who has a new coach, the Tigers run the risk of falling into a hole early. “If we aren’t able to knock off some of these early, high-ranked teams, we, as a coaching staff, are going to have to do a great job of keeping the team focused for the middle and late part of the season,” Flory said. But Flory remains confident that her team will prove it belongs by the end of the weekend. “I think we’re going to compete in every match,” Flory said. “This is going to be a special season for these kids.”
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Contact Tyler Nunez at [email protected]