The LSU volleyball team finds itself on shaky ground after another two-loss weekend dropped the Tigers to 2-4 heading into the final weekend before Southeastern Conference play begins. The Tigers fell to No. 7 Purdue and No. 12 Washington in straight sets after earning a win in the weekend’s first match against Rice. “Playing against four top-20 programs over the first two weekends have made us a battle-tested group and shown us what we need to work on,” said LSU Coach Fran Flory in a news release. The Tiger Classic was supposed to be LSU’s home opener, but Hurricane Isaac caused the tournament to be moved to Rice University in Houston, Texas. LSU continued to struggle against ranked opponents this season after a .084 hit percentage against Purdue and Washington dropped the team’s average to .099 against ranked opponents. In 12 sets played against ranked opponents, the Tigers have failed to win a single set through four matches. Another 64 hitting errors this weekend catapulted the Tigers to 124 errors through six games, a number last season’s team needed eight games to reach. Despite their offensive struggles, Flory maintains an air of confidence in her team’s ability to improve before the start of conference play.   “We’re very close to finding our consistent offensive rhythm and tempo,” Flory said. “I’m proud of the progress our team made from last week to this week. We’ll get back into the practice gym and make the necessary adjustments to continue to get better.” The only Tiger to be named to the All-Tournament team was senior libero Meghan Mannari. Her 42 digs left her 109 short of becoming the 12th Tiger to record 1,000 career digs. Junior middle blocker Desiree Elliott led the Tigers in kills for a second straight week after posting 28 kills through the three matches.  “I thought Desiree had a decent weekend at Texas,” Flory said. “She played very hard, but we just couldn’t create enough opportunities for her. The fact we were able to control the first contact well enough to get her involved into a major offensive role was key. When her offense is rolling, her blocking also jumps to a high level.” ____ Contact Mike Gegenheimer at [email protected]