LSU coach Fran Flory is upset with her team.LSU was swept by Georgia, 3-0, on Wednesday, leaving the Tigers without a conference road win this season.”We really only have [seniors] Elena [Martinez] and Kyna [Washington] who have [been significant] roles in conference wins on the road,” Flory said. “We need to rely on their leadership, and they need to make sure they provide the level of leadership on our away matches. I don’t know that we got that [Wednesday] from anybody.”LSU (8-6, 3-4) will keep searching for that elusive conference road win Sunday against Auburn (5-12, 0-6).Despite its 3-4 conference record, LSU sits at No. 2 in the Southeastern Conference Western Division behind Ole Miss.Auburn is last in the SEC Western Division. Georgia, last in the SEC Eastern Division, was 1-5 in conference play before beating LSU.LSU committed 10 service errors against Georgia, its highest total since putting up 14 in a 3-1 defeat by Florida on Sept.. 21.”We knew going in … We had to win the serving and passing battle to be successful against this team,” Flory said. “We did a very poor job of that. I think we pressed a little hard.”LSU kept the same lineup it had Sunday after junior middle blocker Lauren DeGirolamo went out with a right knee injury Oct. 3 against Ole Miss.Freshman Michele Williams started the past two matches at outside hitter for sophomore Tania Schatow, who replaced DeGirolamo at middle blocker.Flory said she didn’t get a chance to evaluate the new lineup because of the Tigers’ poor ball handling.”When you don’t control the ball, it doesn’t really matter what lineup you’re in because the other team automatically has the advantage,” Flory said.Flory said she wasn’t sure if she would change the lineup for Auburn.”We’re going to practice Friday and Saturday and see if we can create some better match-ups or better opportunity,” Flory said. “We’ll figure that out in the next couple of days.”LSU has made a habit of slow starts this season, winning only five first sets out of 14 matches.”It’s not anything about what we’re doing,” Flory said. “It’s a lack of the correct mentality to come out and jump on a team quickly.”Flory said the team “just needs to get past” the loss to Georgia.”In the last few weeks in the practice gym I thought that we had done a great job,” Flory said. “I’m very disappointed.”—- Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]
Volleyball: Tigers’ season still without SEC road win
By By Robert Stewart
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
October 9, 2008