LSU’s weekend sweep of Ole Miss and Arkansas was its first home sweep of the season. But it came at a high cost.LSU junior middle blocker Lauren DeGirolamo tore her right ACL and MCL in the second set Friday against Ole Miss. The preseason All-Southeastern Conference and 2007 All-SEC First Team member will be out for the remainder of the season.”Lauren is a huge loss,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “She’s been our stabilizing force in the middle for the last three years.”DeGirolamo said she was going for a slide behind the setter and she landed wrong.”I knew something was wrong because it hurt really badly,” DeGirolamo said. “I’ve never experienced that kind of pain before.”DeGirolamo is the second Tiger to go down with a season-ending knee injury. Senior outside hitter Marina Skender tore her left ACL during spring practice.Senior libero Elena Martinez said the team will bounce back from the loss.”We’ve always had great team chemistry,” Martinez said. “We really focused on being adaptable [Sunday]. No matter who is in the lineup, we’re still going to play our game and take care of our side.”The Tigers went on to defeat Ole Miss, 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-18), in front of a season-high home crowd of 1,249.The opening set victory was the first for the Tigers since Sept. 6 against McNeese State.”That was [the team’s] goal in the locker room,” Flory said. “They talked about it before the match — win set one. They were determined to make that turn today, and take that step. It was a monkey on our back that we were having trouble with getting from under us.”The Tigers out-blocked the Rebels, 16-9, in the match. The 16 blocks were a season high for the Tigers.In the match, DeGirolamo moved into eighth place all-time in career blocks in LSU history.           Junior outside hitter Brittnee Cooper marked her 500th career kill when she scored the first point of the match for the Tigers.The Tigers also defeated Arkansas in straight sets Sunday (25-21, 25-23, 25-15) in their first full match without DeGirolamo.LSU came out strong in the first set, building up 5-1 lead before the Razorbacks came back and kept the remainder of the first set close.”We were real focused coming out of the locker room because it’s a new lineup,” Flory said. “The newness wore off, and then we decided we were in a bit of battle. It’s a quick fix, but then the quick fix wears off.”The Razorbacks (4-11, 1-4) led only once in the match, at 1-0 in the first set.”The team did a tremendous job of getting over the grief process and understanding that we don’t have her,” Flory said. Martinez’s 18 digs in the Arkansas match were enough to move her into seventh place all-time in LSU history. Sophomore outside blocker Tania Schatow also recorded her 100th career kill in the match.The Tigers (8-5, 3-3) return to action Wednesday night at Georgia.—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]