While the Tigers hit the volleyball around before practice Monday, a raucous eruption rendered any running recordings inaudible for a few seconds.
Senior defensive specialist Sam Delahoussaye — all 5 feet, 5 inches of her — blocked 6-foot-4 sophomore middle blocker Madi Mahaffey, setting her teammates off into a cheering chorus and prompting her coach to proclaim it her possible first block ever.
“I’m glad that happened before you finished,” LSU coach Fran Flory yelled from the sidelines. “Nothing like the last practice, monumental moment.”
When Flory walked in 15 minutes earlier, practice was surprisingly already in full swing. The team had a game to prepare for, but she wasn’t about to break this up.
“I can’t say I’ve had many teams that on the last day of practice, I’d walk in the gym and they’d be playing, and having a great time playing together,” Flory said, watching her team cut up and laugh.
When Arkansas comes into the PMAC on Wednesday, LSU won’t be playing to advance because its season was over long ago. The team still has plenty to play for though, as it has come together through this tough campaign in a way that Flory said is rare.
That closeness, Flory said, has everything to do with the seniors.
“The coaches made a comment that this week would be tough to get through,” Delahoussaye said.
The reasons Flory will miss her seniors are as differing as their personalities.
Aside from the crashing balls Delahoussaye inexplicably digs up, Flory will miss watching her blossom from the wallflower she was when she arrived to the balanced person she is now.
She’ll miss the same about watching exemplary leader Meghan Mannari’s game grow.
She’ll miss fiery senior outside hitter Madie Jones inciting her teammates, but not her opponents, like she was sometimes accustomed to doing.
She’ll miss the sleep if her team can’t find someone other than Flory to call in the wee hours, which was cool-headed senior Victoria Jacobsen’s job.
To kick off their final week together, the athletes all switched jerseys during warm-ups before Sunday’s loss to Missouri. Mannari wore Jones’ shirt while Delahoussaye represented freshman Haley Smith, who will be the only defensive specialist on LSU’s roster when Delahoussaye and Mannari depart.
After four years, Mannari and Delahoussaye have developed a friendship that Smith said would make anyone envious. They’re so close that their parents follow their daughters together.
Mannari’s parents recently picked up Delahoussaye’s parents from their Madisonville, La., home before road-tripping to Gainesville, Fla., and Knoxville, Tenn., to watch their daughters play. The families bunked with each other throughout the trip.
“We told them, ‘You guys really need to meet. We promise, you’ll become friends,’” Mannari said. “Little did we know…”
This senior class has tied the team together more than Flory usually sees, and when it takes on the Razorbacks, it’s not for nothing.
“We’re going out there to play for pride,” Mannari said. “… Just prove that we have something to play for.”
What might that be?
“We’re playing for each other,” Delahoussaye said.
