The LSU volleyball team is eagerly anticipating this weekend’s Southeastern Conference openers, when it will travel to Alabama and South Carolina after a daunting but preparatory non-conference schedule.
“We’re ready to get into conference play,” said senior defensive specialist Sam Delahoussaye. “We had a really tough preseason schedule and we’re just ready to play the teams we normally play.”
The Tigers exit non-conference with a middling 4-5 record, while the Crimson Tide and the Gamecocks have a combined 22-1 record. However, a look at the teams’ previous opponents may explain the disparity in wins.
Four of LSU’s five losses came against ranked teams — the fifth doled out last weekend by North Carolina, who’s also garnered votes in the poll. While the Gamecocks dropped three exhibition sets to the Slovenian National Team, both South Carolina and Alabama didn’t play a single ranked opponent between them.
LSU coach Fran Flory knew she was “biting off a little bit too much” for her team when she scheduled, but she still hoped for a 5-4 record to be “super comfortable.”
“I wanted to play people that were bigger and more physical and better in preconference, so when we got up against [similar SEC teams] we didn’t see that for the first time in the season,” Flory said. “I don’t know that it’ll work, but that’s why I chose that pathway. The other people chose to get wins.”
She said her team turned a corner in its 2-1 effort at last weekend’s Carolina Classic tournament, where LSU had a season-best .311 hitting percentage in its final match. The team was not as ready as she thought after the summer, and the non-conference slate allowed her players to better understand their roles, she said.
Flory also said she’s learned how to properly play her freshman contributors Khourtni Fears and Cati Leak. She said she put too much pressure on Leak early in the season, but Leak found a balance in North Carolina, where she recorded 20 kills, 24 digs and five blocks at the Carolina Classic.
“Being with new players, you’ve just got to learn to adapt to their styles and their different place [on the court],” Leak said. “Maintaining consistent balance is what I’ve learned I have to do.”
Flory will see if her preconference gauntlet pans out when her Tigers travel to Alabama on Friday night and to South Carolina on Sunday afternoon.
“I think we’re going to win a whole lot more than we lose this year in the SEC,” Flory said. “I’ll be very surprised if we don’t.”
