While many in Baton Rouge will be trick-or-treating or dressing up as ghosts and vampires tonight, the LSU volleyball team will battle against South Carolina at 7 p.m. in the PMAC.
Though the Tigers can’t partake in the Halloween festivities, they have already taken care of their own vampires — not the vampires that come on television every night, but the ones that feed on positive energy.
This theme stems from the book “The Energy Bus.” LSU coach Fran Flory had her team read the book a few weeks ago, and the Tigers haven’t lost since.
Senior setter Malorie Pardo said though it’s a little quirky, it also helped the Tigers get on their current seven-game win streak.
“It’s about staying positive no matter what the situation,” Pardo said. “If we win or lose or if you get frustrated, you always need to pool the positive energy and hold that in and just forget about the negative stuff.”
Pardo and Flory each have a bus keychain on their key ring as a reminder, but Flory took it a step further. She has a miniature bus on her desk, put signs all over the team’s locker room with the “10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy” and keeps a sign on her door that reads “No Energy Vampires Allowed.”
Flory said the bus’ influence on LSU has been vital to the team’s success.
“Negativity breeds negativity, and positivity breeds positivity,” Flory said. “When people get negative, they tend to underachieve, and when people get positive, they tend to overachieve.”
The Tigers aren’t overachieving, Flory said. They’re just playing like they’re capable because they believe they are.
“The people that tend to dwell in the negative, we grab and bring them up to the top,” Flory said. “And before we know it, they’re making plays they never knew they could make.
The positive energy will be needed on Friday against a strong defensive team in South Carolina.
“They’re going to stop you,” Flory said. “You can’t get frustrated. You’ve got to stay the course and understand that they’re going to dig a lot of balls and touch a lot of balls blocking. We’ve got to do the same thing to them.”
After Friday’s tough defensive matchup, LSU’s weekend schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Tigers travel to Arkansas on Sunday. But neither Flory nor the players are concerned with their energy level, having to travel immediately after a competitive home game.
In the next three weeks, the Tigers will twice have a home game on Friday and a road game on Sunday. Pardo said she loves the way these games line up because it allows the Tigers to bring the home crowd’s energy from Friday night’s game with them on the road.
“Having that [home match on a Friday gets] us going for the weekend,” Pardo said. “It’s that jump start that’s really going to help on Sunday when we’re away.”
But Arkansas’ Barnhill Arena might be filled with more energy than LSU’s positivity. The Tigers’ current seven-game win streak started with a comeback, five-set victory against the Razorbacks.
Flory said she expects a bit of a revenge factor from Arkansas because the Tigers stole the win from the Razorbacks, but she wants to remind everyone both of these teams are different now.
The Razorbacks need quality wins to get into the NCAA tournament, and beating RPI No. 25 LSU would be one. Though her team is in the top 25 of the RPI, Flory said the Tigers are focused on improving their own resume.
“They are hungry to get to the next step,” Flory said. “They’re mad that there are 24 teams ahead of them.”
Flory said while the bus and the vampires are getting the Tigers prepared mentally, the team continues to grow into an unstoppable force.
“We’re not just being positive,” Flory said. “We’re finding solutions to problems. When you find solutions, you feel like you’ve earned something. And when you do that, it just gets better and bigger. Then you get rolling and it’s awfully hard to stop a team that gets rolling like that.”