LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory said it’s no coincidence the Tigers have won three straight Southeastern Conference Western Division titles since LSU senior outside hitter Kyna Washington arrived on campus.The Tigers have amassed an 87-31 record, including three straight NCAA postseason appearances with Washington.”I said when that senior class with Kyna and Elena came in that they were the most heralded class that I had ever recruited in my tenure here at LSU,” Flory said. “They have proven that to be true.”Washington has shown Flory’s praise to be well deserved.She is first on the team in kills (263), first in service aces (32), second in digs (183) and second in blocks (49).”Kyna came in here not playing six rotations,” Flory said. “She was a front row player to begin with. It’s a tribute to her great work effort in the gym that she has become a great passer and a great defender.”In 2005, she was named to the SEC All-Freshmen Team. Last season she was on the 2007 All-SEC First Team, and she was also named to the 2008 Preseason All-SEC First team.Washington said there is some pressure that comes along the awards, but she doesn’t let the success faze her.”You have to keep it up, and you have to keep consistent play,” Washington said. “So there is some pressure, but as long as you play hard, good things come to you.”With her collegiate career coming to a close, Washington will have a way of remembering these rewards.James Washington, Kyna’s father, has been Kyna’s official photographer since her birth.”If you want to look at anything I’ve done in my life from my first steps getting my hair done for the first time to playing sports, my dad has it,” Kyna said. “We have a whole room in my house where he has files [of photos] for me and my brother.”Washington did not always want to be a Tiger.The Houston native was highly recruited across the nation coming out of high school as the No. 33 recruit on PrepVolleyball.com’s Senior Aces.”I was looking at Florida and Texas, and those didn’t work out,” Washington said. “My mom is from Biloxi, and she said, ‘You should look at LSU.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t want to go to LSU.'”After some convincing from her mother, Faye Washington, Kyna decided to take a trip to Baton Rouge.”In my senior year [of high school], I called Coach Flory, and I told her I wanted to come for a visit,” Kyna said. “I loved it. With the athletic facilities to do what they do for the athletes and how they treat their athletes, with all the rigorous work that we do, they accommodate to us.”Faye didn’t only help Kyna with her decision to go to LSU. She also helped Kyna get her start in volleyball.”She picked up volleyball around age 7 or 8, and she was quite natural at it,” Faye said. “Although I didn’t know how to play, I helped her however I could. She picked up the setting, and she had the perfect hands and perfect rhythm.”If it was up to Faye, Kyna probably wouldn’t be playing volleyball today. Faye was a collegiate basketball player for Jackson State, and Kyna’s brother also played basketball.”I said, ‘Basketball is for boys. I don’t want to play,'” Kyna said. “But I played basketball until my sophomore year in high school, and then I stopped and continued volleyball because I liked it better.”After she graduates, Kyna will have a few options open to her. She said she could possibly play volleyball overseas.But the fashion merchandising major also has other career possibilities.”There are a lot of options in the fashion industry right now,” Kyna said. “I have to graduate first.”Kyna will graduate in the summer of 2009, leaving her without volleyball for the spring semester.”I probably won’t know what to do with myself,” she said. “I’m going to have to get a job to keep myself busy.”Flory knows Kyna will be successful in whatever she does.”She is a great athlete and a great volleyball player,” Flory said. “She understands what being a student-athlete is all about. She has achieved or over-achieved in every aspect of our program, and she is a true success story. She is going to step out of here and have an incredible career after college.”
 
 
 
—- Contact The Daily Reveille’s sports staff at [email protected]