LSU will be headed back on the road after a 10-game weekend against No. 11 Florida (17-2, 11-1) and South Carolina (16-6, 7-5) at home.The Tigers were physically tired after last weekend, but LSU senior libero Elena Martinez said the team is ready to get back to play.”We had a really long weekend,” Martinez said. “We worked really hard. We fought. But for the most part we are all recovered. We are physically back to normal.”Martinez said the team’s confidence is at a season high.”We did really well [last] weekend,” she said. “We didn’t win both matches, but we did win one, and the other one was really close. We worked really hard against two teams we previously lost to, so we really saw some improvement from the beginning of the season to where we are now.”LSU coach Fran Flory said the Tigers put up a strong blocking performance last weekend. In LSU’s two five-game matches, the team put up 17 and 17.5 blocks, respectively. The strong weekend moved the Tigers up to second in the Southeastern Conference behind Kentucky in blocks per game with 25.4.”That’s very significant blocking stats,” Flory said. “Our defense behind that makes us pretty difficult to score on.”Flory said the Tigers will need to keep those block numbers up against Kentucky — a team Flory called the most physical in the conference.”Against Kentucky we have to do a great job blocking,” Flory said. “They are a very good blocking team. Our goal is to match them blocking. They may block more balls than us, but we have to be close to them.”Flory said the team will have to be patient to win its weekend matches.”We can’t beat ourselves,” she said. “We have to keep the ball in play and stay on the court long enough for them to err themselves out or for us to have the right swing to put the ball on the floor.”The Tigers will try to make up for an early season, straight-set loss to No. 21 Kentucky (20-3, 11-1) at 6 p.m. tonight.LSU will then move on to Tennessee (15-8, 8-4) for a 12:30 p.m. match Sunday. LSU defeated the Vols, 3-1, in its first home match of the season.”Against Tennessee we need to be very patient offensively,” Flory said. “They dig a ton of balls, and they are going to keep a lot of balls in play, so we can’t allow that to frustrate us. We have to match their defensive tenacity.”Both Kentucky and Tennessee are coming off pairs of weekend victories.With a road weekend sweep, the Tigers would collect the program’s 800th victory.—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]