LSU volleyball begins its season on the road in Waco, Texas against a familiar opponent: the Baylor Bears. Baylor will be one of three opponents the Tigers will face this weekend including Marquette and Texas State.
Coaches typically dread seeing how raw their teams are at the start of the season, but it is also a fantastic opportunity to see what areas a team needs to work on as the season moves forward.
Coach Fran Flory and her staff plan to take advantage of this weekend in Waco to gauge where the team is.
“The first weekend of the season is really about what you are doing on your side of the net as a team,” Flory said. “You don’t have a lot of analytics or information on anyone. We don’t know what they are doing, and they don’t know what we are doing. It is important that for us to be efficient, play clean volleyball, and make people earn points.”
LSU will face a trio of stiff competition to start the season with Baylor, Marquette and Texas State. Flory takes notice of what these opponents do superbly and the Tigers have made preparations to be ready for what will be thrown at them.
“We played Baylor in the spring and we know to be prepared for a very fast offense and will be very fiesty,” Flory said. “Marquette is a very disciplined and well-trained team that plays very consistently. Texas State is probably the most dangerous of the three to us because we know the least amount about them. They will be a much different team than we’ve seen in the past.”
LSU faced Baylor last year in the earlier portion of the season as the team was still developing. After being tied with the Bears at 1-1, the Tigers fell three sets to one. Flory explained what went wrong for her team and addressed what they should do moving forward to avoid having the same result.
“At that point of the year last season, we weren’t quite confident enough to know what we were capable of doing,” Flory said. “That was part of our evolution as a team last year and a match we could’ve won on the road. The biggest thing for us will be knowing
Coming off a season where LSU played significantly better in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center than on the road, grasping early momentum in these matches will be huge for this team and will elevate the confidence level. Gaining momentum can also translate to matches held in the future, which could lead to a stretch of a success for the team.
“Having a more experienced and seasoned team will help us a lot,” Flory said. “Having a team with more familiarity and knowing what it is like to play there should be a big help, but we still need to be prepared for anything that is thrown at us.”
LSU will face Baylor on Friday, August 24th at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the Tigers will face Marquette at 1 p.m. and Texas State at 5 p.m.