It’s not very often a freshman is thrown into the heat of battle in her first volleyball collegiate match, especially against a top-10 team.It’s even rarer for a former walk-on and the last person added to the roster to be that freshman to jump into the action.Yet LSU coach Fran Flory had all the confidence in the world to let freshman defensive specialist Samantha Delahoussaye get action in all five sets of LSU’s loss to then-No. 5 Stanford in the Tigers’ season opening match.”You can’t [improve] except to get her experience and throw her into it,” Flory said. “We didn’t hold back on her. We didn’t protect her. We threw her into the fire.”The Madisonville product finished her first match with six digs and two assists and improved those numbers in nearly every match since.She played in 34 of the Tigers’ 35 sets this season, which is second on the team. In that time, she amassed 2.15 digs per set, No. 3 on the team, and three service aces, No. 5 on the team.”I’ve had a mixture of good and bad games,” Delahoussaye said. “I’ve definitely improved since I got here, but I feel like I can play better as the season goes on.””Shorty,” as she is known to her teammates for being the shortest on the team at 5 feet, 5 inches, came to LSU from St. Scholastica Academy in Covington. She was named All-District 5-I co-Most Valuable Player her senior season along with being on Prepvolleyball.com’s 2009 Defensive Dandies List.Southern Mississippi and the College of William and Mary recruited the freshman, but she said she chose LSU because it was close to home, and she liked the program. Delahoussaye also has an older sister at LSU and a cousin who is a cheerleader.”I’ve always wanted to go to LSU ever since I was little because I’m from here,” Delahoussaye said.Flory said the program was attracted to Delahoussaye because of her speed and agility.”The first thing we noticed was that she is such a dynamic defender,” Flory said. “You look for an attribute in recruits that separates them from everyone you are watching, and she explodes playing defense. She’s fearless, and she has very good ball skills.”Delahoussaye’s roommate and fellow libero Lauren Waclawczyk echoed Flory.”She is very quick, she’s low and she can get to any ball on the court,” the sophomore said.Flory said with time the freshman will become an even better defender than she has already proven to be.”She didn’t realize, like every other freshman, how important the mental side of the game is,” Flory said. “It’s so much more involved than just going out and playing. She’s hit a few road bumps … and that’s held her back a little bit.”But even with those road bumps, “Shorty” is never one to take the smile off her face.”I don’t really think about what’s going on,” she said. “I like to just go out there and have fun.”Flory said that fun attitude is something the Tigers need in a defensive specialist.”She’s never a negative,” Flory said. “[A libero] has to have a presence, and that’s what we are trying to get her to do. She has a smile on her face, but she is always quiet, so we are trying to get her out of that box and have her be a little louder.”–Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]