With Halloween only a day away and the Carlotta Street party tonight, LSU’s volleyball team decided to make noise and start its own block party a weekend early.The Tigers’ block party consisted of 17 and 16 rejections, respectively, of Southeastern Conference Eastern Division foes Kentucky and Tennessee, two of the more potent offenses in the Southeastern Conference. In comparison, the Tigers’ opponents combined to collect 16.5 blocks in last weekend’s matches.The No. 20 Tigers (16-5, 10-2) hope to keep their block party going in the PMAC during the Halloween weekend in a pair of home matches against Georgia (14-9, 5-7) and Auburn (14-8, 6-5).”We have the potential to be a very great blocking team because we have a lot of height across the net,” said senior outside hitter Lauren DeGirolamo. “[Last] weekend was the first time we showed it, and we need to keep it up this weekend.”LSU now leads the SEC with 2.77 blocks per set. In addition, the team’s back row defense has been performing well and averages 14.79 digs per set, fourth in the conference.”When your first line of defense is good, which is your blocking, it makes your second line that much better, and that’s the defensive digs,” said LSU coach Fran Flory.LSU swept both Auburn and Georgia, 3-0, on the road earlier in the season in what were the start of a then-eight-match winning streak.But junior outside hitter Angela Bensend said the Tigers won’t be overlooking their opponents in the team’s second meeting.”Recently, both of those teams have been playing well,” Bensend said. “We have to make sure we come in mentally prepared, and even though we beat them last time doesn’t mean it’s a sure bet this time.”First up this weekend for the Tigers will be Georgia, who is coming off a five-set victory Wednesday night against Auburn.When the teams met earlier in the season in Athens, Ga., LSU took the match, 3-0 (25-13, 30-28, 25-22).”The last time around, we started very slowly against LSU, then competed very well in the second and third set,” said Georgia coach Joel McCartney. “We didn’t stack up with them athletically on that day, so we lost in three, and they deserve credit for that.”McCartney added he feels LSU has improved since the last time the teams met.”LSU is a bona fide top-25 team, and we have our hands full playing them down on their home court,” McCartney said. “On our side of the net, we’ve got to get a better start to the match.”LSU enters the match on a short week’s rest, as the Tigers played Monday night and didn’t arrive back in Baton Rouge until Thursday.The Tigers were forced to play a non-traditional Saturday-Monday pair of matches last weekend because of a circus happening in Tennessee’s home court.”When the elephants are in the building, we don’t want to be there,” Flory joked.That change in schedule forced Flory to switch up the team’s routine in the middle of this week to get the Tigers prepared for their matches this weekend.”The beginning of the week is usually individual stuff, and we chose to have that day [Wednesday],” Flory said. “Then we usually have a medium, balance day between individual skill work and team work, so we just took out that middle day. We’ll be ready.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]