LSU coach Fran Flory has her volleyball team looking at tonight’s match as more than just the start of Southeastern Conference play.”We look at it as a new beginning,” said senior libero Elena Martinez. “We start our record over.”Flory said the team divides the season into pre-SEC, SEC and postseason play. “During the pre-conference schedule, we were pretty much right on,” Flory said. “We would have really liked to have one more win. We thought we could have hung on in the Minnesota match.”Flory called SEC play the “meat” of the Tigers’ schedule.”[SEC play] is the hardest one,” she said. “You are playing for NCAA bids. We have got to take care of our home matches, and we have to steal some of the road matches from teams.”LSU (5-2) will have its first chance to steal a road match tonight at 7 p.m. against South Carolina (8-1), a team with five straight losing seasons. “We know they are a little cocky this year,” Martinez said. “They are talking big. They’re saying that they are going to win, and that just adds motivation to us.”Flory said this is the best South Carolina team the Tigers have faced in recent years.”This group for [coach Ben Somera] has really stabilized in terms of talent and ball control,” Flory said. “The past few years they have been a position short or a person short or had an injury in a key spot. They are loaded this year in terms of their   personnel and the balance within their personnel.”The Tigers will travel to Gainesville next to face 17-time defending SEC champion Florida on Sunday at 1 p.m.The Tigers’ seniors have yet to beat the Gators. Martinez says that adds more fuel for the Tigers to use against Florida.”There is always a drive when you don’t have a successful record against a team,” she said.—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]