With half of its Southeastern Conference schedule left to be played, the No. 25 LSU volleyball team could be facing its biggest test of the season in the next three days. The Tigers are not facing a top-10 opponent at home as they did Sept. 23 against Florida, but their two home matches this week could heavily impact LSU’s postseason opportunities. LSU (15-4, 7-3) hosts Ole Miss tonight in the PMAC and faces Arkansas at home this Friday in a battle for SEC Western Division supremacy. LSU coach Fran Flory didn’t call this week’s matches “must-wins,” but she did say this week could go a long way in determining the way the SEC standings end up. “We know these are crucial matches,” Flory said. “We went to both of their courts and won. They’re going to come at us hard, and they’re going to think they have to get those two matches back.” LSU opened its SEC schedule Sept. 12 with a three-game sweep against the Rebels (17-4, 7-3). The Tigers’ second SEC match this season was a 3-1 victory at Arkansas (10-10, 4-6). LSU’s two losses and Ole Miss’ two wins this past weekend put the schools in a three-way tie with Alabama atop the SEC West standings. Flory said she considers October to be the most important month of the season, and she said the Tigers need to finish strong to have a shot at a conference title. “The teams that survive [October] are the teams that position themselves for championships at the end of the season,” she said. “We didn’t survive the first weekends very well.” The Tigers won their first two matches in October, defeating Alabama and Mississippi State at home. However, this past weekend was not as rewarding. LSU lost two five-game matches on the road to Tennessee and Kentucky. Sunday’s match against the Wildcats might have been the Tigers’ most heartbreaking of the season. LSU held a 2-0 lead in the match before Kentucky rallied to win the final three games. While the Tigers dropped two matches against the Vols and the Wildcats, the Rebels beat both teams this past weekend to set up tonight’s match for the SEC West lead. “When you’re playing against the team you’re competing against [in the standings], there’s added importance to the match,” Ole Miss coach Joe Getzin said. “I think the pressure is on [the Tigers]. That’s for sure,” Getzin said. LSU only had one full day of practice this week, partly because of airline troubles it experienced returning to Baton Rouge from Lexington, Ky. The Tigers arrived late Monday morning instead of Sunday evening as originally scheduled. The team held practice as usual Tuesday morning, and Flory said the coaching staff crammed a lot into the practice session, including instituting a new lineup Flory said she will use against Ole Miss. “Sometimes a little change makes a world of difference,” she said. “Hopefully that will happen this week.”
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