All good things must come to an end. And tonight, the regular season home schedule for the seniors on the No. 11 LSU volleyball team will do just that. Libero Kassi Mikulik, setter Daniela Romero, middle blocker Melody Clark and outside hitter Lauren Leaumont will all play their final regular season home game in Tiger uniforms when LSU faces the University of Alabama in the PMAC. The Tigers have won six of their past seven matches and clinched at least a share of the Southeastern Conference Western Division title Wednesday night with a three-game sweep of the University of Arkansas. The departing seniors have had their share of ups and downs in their short time at LSU. The team endured a disappointing 11-19 overall record in 2003 but worked hard to improve that mark to 17-12 in the 2004 season. The 2005 season proved to be a breakout campaign for the Tigers as they won a share of the SEC West with Arkansas and made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1992. Mikulik said she will feel a wide range of emotions during the senior night festivities, but nervousness will not be one of them. “[I will not be] nervous,” Mikulik said. “Excited mostly [and] sad.” Leaumont said remembering the season is far from over is important for the seniors. “We still have a lot of season left to play,” Leaumont said. “We can’t get too emotional about [senior night].” Clark agreed with Leaumont, saying the Tigers still have many of their goals left to accomplish this season. “We still have two games left to go,” Clark said. “We still need to win this match and the Western Division championship.” LSU coach Fran Flory said the seniors and their parents will not be the only people going through various emotions tonight. “I always get emotional on senior night,” Flory said. “These seniors have meant a ton to the program, but this is not their last match as an LSU Tiger. There’s a lot more volleyball to be played, and I think [the seniors] understand that.” All the seniors agreed that the match is the team’s No. 1 priority. The Tigers have lost only three SEC games this season, and two of those losses came against the University of Florida. Alabama is the only other SEC team to hand the Tigers a conference loss when it beat LSU 3-1 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Oct. 8. Flory said the bad blood between LSU and Alabama is prevalent in major and minor sports. “The Alabama-LSU rivalry, I think almost in every sport here, is a tough rivalry,” she said. “We battle back and forth. We have a lot of respect for them, but we know they’re a team we’re going to have to reckon with every year in our division.” The rivalry has been rejuvenated over the past two years, with each team winning on its home court in 2004 and 2005. The Tigers offense might be a little shorthanded in tonight’s match. Sophomore Kyna Washington, who came into this week second for the Tigers in kills with 3.55 per game, sprained her left ankle in Wednesday night’s victory against Arkansas, but Flory said she expects Washington to be in uniform tonight. “I don’t know if she’s going to start,” she said. “We’ll see how she feels.” Flory said even with all the sentiment surrounding senior night, she believes her team will remain on task. “Senior night for everybody is kind of hit or miss,” she said. “It depends on the emotion and the mentality of your team. I think this team will be very focused. Our goal is to keep preparing ourselves for the NCAA Tournament. We don’t feel like we’ve played the best that we can yet.”
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