Every team wants to finish strong.
A year ago, LSU did not do that. The Tigers lost five of their last seven matches and still snuck into the NCAA Tournament as a nine-seed on the strength of ranked wins early in the conference schedule.
This year, LSU doesn’t have that luxury. The team is 10-12 with six matches remaining, and in order to reach the .500 threshold required to be considered for the NCAA tournament, it has to win four of them–likely more than four to convince the committee.
“No pressure,” head coach Tonya Johnson joked.
What’s more, LSU will face three teams that are currently ranked in this final stretch: No. 10 Tennessee, No. 21 Florida and No. 24 Auburn.
The Tigers haven’t fared well against the country’s best this year. They’re 0-5 this season against ranked teams, and they’ve been swept in four of those games. Against teams projected by NCAA’s Michella Chester to be in the 64-team tournament field, LSU is 1-10.
LSU’s performance this year is especially disappointing given the expectations heading in, coming off a 16-14 season and its first tournament appearance since 2017 and returning most of the important pieces.
The team was expected to take a step forward toward competing with the elite teams of the SEC, but that hasn’t happened.
Despite the struggles and increasingly dwindling tournament chances, LSU remains bought in.
“I take my hat off to them, you know, they could easily throw in the towel, us being 10-12,” Johnson said. “But they’re competitors, and they want to compete and end this thing on a high note.”
One of the main things that’s held LSU back this season has been simple mistakes, like poor first contact that puts the offense out of system and bad attacking approaches that end in mishit balls. That was certainly the case in a recent 3-2 loss to Ole Miss where LSU had a season-high 26 attacking errors, which effectively thwarted its comeback attempt after falling behind 2-0.
“Reducing our unforced errors and making teams earn their points and just not giving them points,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball on our side of the net and take pride in those contacts.”
Some of the errors have come as a result of switching to a new offensive system. LSU started the season running the 5-1, but setter Maddie Waak going six rotations left LSU vulnerable when she was oriented as a front row blocker. They’ve since switched to a 6-2, where three attackers are always up front and the team rotates between two setters, with the setter always in the back row.
The new system came with growing pains, and adjusting between two different setters has caused occasional issues with timing. However, the change was aimed to help the team’s blocking and get more hitters involved, including right side Ellie Echter.
Echter was sidelined all of last year with an injury and found herself on the bench behind star transfer Jade Demps to start this year. The switch to the 6-2 got her into the rotation, and she’s so far had an efficient hitting percentage of .319, second on the team behind Anita Anwusi.
“She’s come in and done some really good things for us. Her offense has been really good,” Johnson said. “To go along with that, her blocking’s gotten better and her off-blocker defense has gotten better, so she’s playing some really good volleyball right now.”
Consistency has been hard to find among LSU’s pin hitters, so Echter’s emergence has been important.
As the team focuses on cleaning up its errors, LSU is in the midst of one of its best stretches of the season. The team is 2-1 in its last three games, and even the loss to Ole Miss was one of its most competitive losses of the season. While those three matches were against the bottom three of the SEC’s standings, the run has been good for building confidence.
LSU’s blocking, which Johnson described as its Achilles’ heel earlier in the season, made strides forward during that time. The blockers have begun to make it easier on the defense as a whole by getting in front of opposing attackers and limiting the amount of ground the back row defenders need to cover.
A big part of that has been the play of redshirt freshman blocker Alexis Roberson. With starter Alia Williams dealing with an injury, Johnson has tried several options at the second blocker spot behind Anwusi, including freshman Angie Lee. Now, though, she’s settled on Roberson and her imposing 6-foot 3-inch frame.
“She just takes up a ton of space,” Johnson said. “She’s really good from a blocking standpoint. She works her tail off, she’s a grinder.”
Since Roberson was inserted into the starting lineup, LSU has averaged 2.44 blocks per set compared to 1.76 up to that point. Roberson’s 0.83 blocks per set is the best mark on the team; she’s come up with at least three blocks in each of her last four games.
Even with the recent improvements, the Tigers have their work cut out for them. They’ll need to come up with impressive wins in order to help make the argument to the NCAA committee that they belong in the tournament for a second straight year.
Doing so isn’t out of the question, as three teams who are just barely ahead of LSU (5-7 in conference play) in the SEC standings in Missouri (7-6), Texas A&M (7-6) and Georgia (6-6) were projected to make the tournament by Chester.
It’s possible that a strong finish would catapult the Tigers into the conversation with those conference teams, but it’ll take consistent and complete performances that haven’t been common for LSU this year.
Johnson is sure of one thing, even in the face of a demanding final stretch that will challenge her team’s desire to be great.
“I think this team is going to continue to fight ’til the very end.”
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