The LSU sand volleyball team will return home this weekend after back-to-back road tournaments.
The Tigers (10-8) will host the Battle on the Bayou tournament at Mango’s Beach Volleyball Club in Baton Rouge as its last home meet of the season. LSU is familiar with all its opponents this weekend after facing them at various tournaments throughout the year.
Play begins at 11 a.m. Saturday as the Tigers host the University of New Orleans and UL-Monroe. They will continue with a 2 p.m. start against South Carolina, before facing Spring Hill at 4 p.m. Play will conclude Sunday afternoon when the Tigers face Tulane at 2 p.m.
“We are excited for our upcoming meet at home this week” said LSU coach Russell Brock. “There are things we focused on this week that we didn’t do well last week, so we’ll look for improvement in those areas.”
Last weekend at the Fiesta on Siesta Key, Brock experimented with his pairs by making his players switch partners. Brock said he wanted his players to expand their game by competing alongside different teammates.
The Tigers are coming off a loss 4-1 against No.4 Florida State on April 7,their other match while against Carson Newman was cancelled due to severe weather.
“Florida State is the No.4 team in the country,” Brock said. “We knew we’d have to play our best game in order to compete, but we fought hard and showed great effort.”
Freshman Mandi Orellana and senior Katie Lindelow got the only win against Florida State last week, winning 21-19 in both sets.
“It says a lot about how good Mandi and Katie are, We put a lot of confidence in them throwing them out their against everyone’s top pairs,” Brock said in a news release. “The thing they’ve had to fight is the lack of experience together as a pair. They’ve had more and more opportunities to play together, and it was good to go out there against Florida State’s No.1pair and win in that environment.”
As the team’s No.1 pair, Orellana and Lindelow will have to continue to play at a high level if the Tigers want a repeat performance of their last home stand when they swept the competition, 4-0.
The Battle of the Bayou is the last meet of the season before the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama, next weekend.
You can reach Malcolm Poree on Twitter @MalcolmP_TDR.