The LSU volleyball team began its journey Saturday night into the 2010 season with the annual purple-and-gold scrimmage.The purple side, led by assistant coach Steve Loeswick, won the match, 2-1 (24-26, 27-25, 15-6) after dropping the first set to assistant coach Jill Lytle Wilson’s gold side.LSU coach Fran Flory said the scrimmage served every purpose she wanted it to and commented on the play of this year’s newcomers.”We have six freshmen, so we wanted to see how they performed when the lights come on and there’s somebody to play in front of,” Flory said. “And I thought every one of them played great and did as much as or maybe more than we expected of them.”Of the veterans, senior outside hitter Angela Bensend shined in the scrimmage, racking up 10 kills and four aces to help lead the purple team to victory.”[Bensend] has always been a go-to. She’s just always been overshadowed because she’s had great players around her,” Flory said. “The fact that she’s playing at this level is not a surprise to us. She’s really become a stabilizing force and she’s going to be a solid outside hitter.”Flory said overall she was pleased with her team’s performance and the scrimmage was a good first step for the season.”We weren’t very good serving, and we made a ton of errors early, but we worked through it and got a pretty good groove by the third set,” she said. “It certainly showed us a few things we need to get better at and improve upon for Friday, but I think it was a very positive first match.”Flory also commented on the support at the preseason scrimmage and said her three-day motor home adventure wasn’t all in vain.”I sure hope that sacrifice was worth more than just Twitter followers,” Flory chuckled. “I do think that publicity jump-kicked us into the season and made more people aware that this was even going on. It’s really nice the fans came out and supported us.”The Lady Tigers also held a free children’s clinic before the match, teaching the volleyball basics to children under 12.”We love teaching kids,” Flory said. “I think the exposure and building our sport from the bottom up is what is important. The popularity of our sport in this community has continued because we hit the young kids and they want to keep coming back. It was a great experience for all of us.”The defending SEC champion Tigers will face Pacific on Friday in College Station, Texas, to kick off the 2010 campaign at the Texas A&M Invitational.
 
 
 
—-Contact Mark Clements at [email protected]