The No. 16 LSU volleyball team is getting a couple extra well-deserved days of rest this week.
The Tigers (21-2, 12-2) will not have a Friday match this week — as close to a bye week as the volleyball team will get this season — but will be off until Sunday when they take on Ole Miss (17-6, 11-3).
The Tigers are going to continue to work hard throughout the week, though.
“We’re still working hard to get ready for Ole Miss,” said senior outside hitter Angela Bensend. “So we’re not letting up. We don’t like breaks.”
LSU will try to take advantage of the free time by getting healthy.
“We’re trying to get recovery without time off,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “But we don’t want to lose our ball control and our rhythm.”
The Tigers have been on an offensive roll lately. They averaged 16 kills per set and totaled a .320 hitting percentage during this past weekend.
LSU has won four consecutive matches and did not lose a set in its two wins against Mississippi State and Alabama this past weekend.
Fresh off some changes to the offensive setup, LSU maintained a balanced attack, with multiple players having an impact on the scoring.
Senior setter Brittney Johnson now leads the Southeastern Conference with 10.76 assists per set. Freshman middle blocker Desiree Elliott totaled 18 kills on the weekend and finished with a career-high .688 hitting percentage against Mississippi State.
But Bensend took the reins when necessary, averaging 4.33 kills per set through the weekend and had 15 kills against Mississippi State, the 20th time she has reached double-digit kills.
“We can adapt this system to match up hitter with certain blocker and certain rotations,” Flory said. “We can match up our blockers against certain hitters. So it allows us to have a game plan and address some weaknesses and allows them to spread our offense pin to pin.”
Defensively, the Tigers relied on junior libero Lauren Waclawczyk to hold down the fort.
Waclawczyk had two double-digit dig performances to bump her streak of such efforts to 10 consecutive matches.
Though LSU only has one game this weekend, it will be a challenge as Ole Miss won the first matchup of the season, 3-0, in Oxford, Miss.
Defending Ole Miss sophomore setter Amanda Philpot has become the key to the Tigers’ preparation for the Rebels.
Philpot went off for eight kills and 26 assists in the first match against the Tigers.
“We changed some spots with our defense, so we’re mainly working on [Philpot],” said sophomore libero Sam Delahoussaye. “We just changed a couple things to make it easier to stop where she likes to put the ball.”
Flory said for LSU to walk away with victory, it will have to come out sharper than it did last time.
“They ran a faster pace than we anticipated [in the last match],” Flory said. “In terms of their offense, their setter was more efficient and more effective than our team realized she was going to be, and she got on us a little faster than we anticipated. And honestly, they were more physical than our players thought they were going to be.”
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]