Before the season, the SEC’s head coaches projected the LSU volleyball team to be the eighth-best team in the conference of 13. Four weekends into the season, SEC play is looming, and it will put that ranking’s validity to the test.
The Tigers were subject to a team overhaul this offseason after having lost a long-tenured head coach in Fran Flory, as well as seven players, including two All-SEC selections in Taylor Bannister and Kylie Deberg and the SEC’s all-time dig leader in Raigen Cianciulli. It was reasonable to think there might be some regression, or a learning curve of some sort.
That process has been clear as LSU has progressed through non-conference play. The team has had its growing pains but has shown marked improvement, and, so far, the Tigers have a record of 6-4. Johnson believes that, for now, LSU’s middling ranking is fair.
“With what we lost, I feel like we were picked in the right spot, right in the middle of the pack. I actually thought, with what we lost, it would be lower. But I can appreciate where we are and hopefully, we can get better from there and just work our way up,” said Head Coach Tonya Johnson.
LSU understands the expectations laid out for the team, but the goal is to exceed those expectations and surprise people. That won’t be easy, as the middle and back end of the SEC figures to be very contentious.
Although the best of the SEC seems to be No. 12 Florida, No. 15 Kentucky and No. 20 Arkansas, the rest of the landscape remains unsettled. Johnson highlighted Georgia, Auburn and Alabama, picked to finish 9th, 12th and 13th respectively, as teams that have improved greatly. Auburn has the SEC’s best record so far at 11-0, while Georgia sits at 9-2 and Alabama recently picked up an impressive win against Texas State.
It’s anyone’s guess how the conference standings will shake out behind the top few teams. Though it may be difficult for LSU to rise to the top of a tightly-packed SEC midfield, doing so would be an impressive feat that would lend credibility to the direction the program is going under Johnson.
One thing LSU has going for them heading into the SEC opener against Arkansas on Wednesday is momentum: the team won both of its games in sweeps against Oregon State and Tulane at the Green Wave Invitational this past weekend. It was a weekend in which LSU’s performance demonstrated some of its lessons learned so far this season.
“In the second set against Oregon State when we were down, we fought and came back, tied it up, won by two. And that’s not something we’ve done in the past. We were able to make plays in the clutch time when we needed to, and that’s not something we’ve done in the past,” Johnson said.
She added that Oregon State’s offense “is pretty fast when they’re in system, and that’s a hard ball to defend. I attribute us being able to defend that to having played Marquette the weekend before.”
In addition to having shown improvement in key areas, LSU also has senior outside hitter Sanaa Dotson playing at a high level ahead of its conference schedule. She was recently named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week, after posting 30 kills on a .324 hitting percentage across the two games last weekend.
“She’s learning to take over matches and that’s what we need her to do. Hopefully, it gave her some confidence to see, ‘hey, this is what my team needs me to do, and they need to get on my back and let me just go.’ Hopefully, it kind of gave her the feeling that she’s more than capable of taking over matches and can do it night-in, night-out,” Johnson said.
However, there are still some things that the team needs to address heading into SEC play. The Tigers need to improve their serving and get their middle blockers more involved in the offense. In addition, LSU has yet to settle its permanent starting lineup.
Up to now, six of the seven members of the starting lineup have remained relatively constant, but the second outside hitter spot has been up for grabs. Senior captain Samarah Hill and junior Paige Flickinger have been engaged in a battle all season long for that final position in the starting group.
So far, neither player has been able to separate herself. Both have started in five matches, and they average almost the same number of kills per set–Hill averages 2.381, while Flickinger has averaged 2.471. Their efficiency has been similar, too, with Hill having a hitting percentage of .160 to Flickinger’s .157. Although she hasn’t been able to name a winner yet, Johnson has been impressed with the effort from both athletes.
“They’re battling, and that’s what you want in your gym. You want a battle every single day and they’re making it really hard to make a decision,” Johnson said.
LSU will soon have its official home opener against a red-hot Arkansas team and will follow that up with two away games against Kentucky over the weekend. SEC play will provide a definite challenge and an opportunity for LSU to grow in a league that Johnson said will have a lot of battles this season.
“For us, it’s just the process and being about what we’re trying to do here in terms of the day-to-day improvements that we’re trying to make and making sure we see those. Are they going to be great gains? No, but we should start to see some small increments of improvement in certain aspects of our game as individuals and as a team.”
