Just like a college basketball team receives a bid to the NCAA tournament for going on a winning streak at the end of the season, LSU’s volleyball team hit its stride at just the right time.The Tigers (18-9, 13-7) ride a six-match winning streak going into tonight’s first-round NCAA volleyball tournament match against No. 9 UCLA (20-10, 9-9 Pac-10), the tournament’s 14th seed.”Our run at the end, the fact that we were on TV last weekend against Ole Miss – and some of the committee members probably saw that – our stats are really good as of late, and the fact that we are being really efficient offensively are all things that helped,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “We were one of the last teams in, and I said all along that we had to win out to get in. If we had lost even one match at the end, we are not talking about this today.”The team will try to get out of the first round for the second straight season. Last season, the Tigers won their first postseason match since 1992, a 3-2 victory against 15th-seeded New Mexico State.It will be some of the players’ first trip to Los Angeles, so they are looking forward to a little vacation and bumping shoulders with all the big names.”It should be a lot of fun,” said LSU senior libero Elena Martinez. “We’re all looking forward to meeting ‘The Hills’ cast. But other than that, we are trying to focus on the team we are playing, not where we are playing.”The team isn’t actually going to meet the cast of ‘The Hills,’ but Flory hopes her players enjoy themselves.”The team is so excited to be going to California,” Flory said. “Obviously, though, it’s a business trip. But this group loves to have fun along the way. They play better when they are loose and enjoying themselves.”The Tigers’ destination was no surprise to the team’s other senior – outside hitter Kyna Washington – who said she had some intuition as to where the team would go.”I just felt it,” Washington said. “It’s a pattern. My freshman year, we were in Austin, and we didn’t do very well. We lost in the first round. In my sophomore year, we go to San Luis Obispo in California, and we don’t do very well. In my junior year, we go to Austin and we do well. My senior year, we are going back to California, and we are going to do well again.”To get to the second round, the Tigers must first get by a giant obstacle in UCLA’s 6-foot-6-inch Pac-10 Freshman of the Year middle blocker/outside hitter Amanda Gil.UCLA also features senior setter Nellie Spicer, who was honored on the All-Pac-10 First Team for the fourth consecutive year.”UCLA is an awfully good team,” Flory said. “But we have the chance, and that is all you fight for. Get in, and you have the chance.”OTHER NCAA TOURNAMENT NEWSLSU was one of four SEC teams to make the postseason, along with Kentucky, Tennessee and 15th-seeded Florida. Tulane is also in the tournament for the first time in school history. The Green Wave (27-5) are a 16 seed. “Tulane is a great team this year,” Flory said. “They have a bunch of foreign kids, and they are very good. Last year, I think they should have made the tournament, and they didn’t get it. I thought that was absolutely horrible. They were overlooked.”
 
 
 
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