The LSU volleyball team heads to the 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament today in Columbia, S. C. hoping to make it to the second round of tournament play for the first time in three years.
The Tigers (11-18, 6-10 SEC) are the No. 7 seed in the tournament, which will showcase the top eight teams out of the eleven in the SEC.
In their first game, the Tigers will face Arkansas, (22-5, 15-1 SEC) who is the SEC Western Division champion and the No. 2 seed.
Defensive specialist Rachel Pittman said nobody on this year’s team has ever gotten past the first round of the single elimination SEC tournament.
“We know what to do,” Pittman said. “We just played [Arkansas]. We hung right there with them.”
In the first meeting between these two teams this season, LSU won game three to send the match into four games before Arkansas finally won 30-27,30-24, 29-31,30-25. The Nov. 12 meeting between the teams ended with another Arkansas victory (30-23, 30-27, 31-29).
Freshman Lauren Leaumont said she feels the Tigers have a good chance of getting past Arkansas to the second round.
“Defense is the key,” Leaumont said. “We just need to minimize errors.”
This will be the first time the Tigers have faced the Razorbacks in the SEC tournament. LSU is 27-24 overall in 24 SEC appearances, while the Razorbacks are 15-8 in the tournament since joining the SEC in 1994.
LSU has won the tournament four times. Arkansas has one tournament title from 1997.
LSU coach Fran Flory said she thinks this will be an exciting tournament.
“The athleticism in seeds two through eight has increased greatly and I won’t be surprised if some upsets take place this weekend,” Flory said in an SEC coaches teleconference. “Some teams are going to come out and surprise people this weekend.”
LSU’s outside hitter Regan Hood leads the Tigers in kills this season. Hood is tied with Arkansas’ Sara Kincaid for No. 4 in the conference in kills per game with 4.29.
Kincaid, a 6-foot-5 senior, is hitting .365 this season with a blocking average of 1.39 per game.
Defensively, Jennifer Haaser is averaging 1.91 digs per game for the Razorbacks and 1.31 blocks per game. Haaser has helped out Kincaid on the offensive side of things by averaging 2.41 kills per game.
The first round of the tournament begins today at 1:00 p.m. when No. 1 Florida faces No. 8 Kentucky. No. 4 Tennessee will then take on No. 5 Georgia before No. 3 Alabama faces No. 6 South Carolina.
LSU will play Arkansas in the last game of the day at 8:00 p.m.
Last year the Tigers lost to Georgia in four games in the first round. The Tigers last won the tournament in 1991.