The LSU volleyball team began this season early in August and from the time players traveled back to campus coach Fran Flory had one demand — to be champions.
“Our goal is to be champions at the end of the year,” Flory said. “We have focused on that, our whole preseason and our whole approach from last spring. LSU — you’re here to win championships. And that’s our goal.”
The season progressed and although slow at times the Tigers finished its regular-season with promise — ranked third in the Southeastern Conference West division.
Senior outside hitter Regan Hood said as her career at LSU comes to an end she and her fellow teammates do not want to come up short on any of their goals.
“We want to win the SEC obviously,” Hood said. “I want to go to the National Championship.”
Last weekend LSU clinched a spot in the SEC tournament with wins over the University of Arkansas and Ole Miss. The team traveled to Gainesville, Fla. this week to prepare for this afternoon’s match against the University of Arkansas. The tournament will last all weekend and will name a champion Sunday. Going into the tournament, the team has not lost focus on what it set out for at the beginning of the season.
“When we came in our coaches told us our motto was ‘Championship Season’ so we knew our expectations were to win a championship,” said sophomore outside hitter Lauren Leaumont. “I think we are all on the same page with that. We all know what we want, we want to win the SEC, go to the NCAA and go as far as we can.”
LSU enters the tournament as the sixth seed overall after completing the season with a 16-10 overall record and 8-8 in SEC play. The University of Arkansas is seeded third after tying with the University of Alabama for the SEC West title. But, the Lady Backs have lost three of their final four conference matches. This is the third time this season the Tigers will face Arkansas.
“This should be the most competitive SEC Tournament in years,” Flory said in a press release. “With as many ties as we had to break regarding seeding and with all the teams so close together in terms of play, it lends itself to a great competition. We are happy to be here and hope we continue to play at a high level and have continued success.”
LSU will begin competing for the SEC title at 1 p.m. this afternoon. If the Tigers defeat Arkansas, the team will advance to take on the winner of the Tennessee/Auburn match Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner of that match will advance to the SEC Tournament championship game Sunday at 2 p.m. The championship match can be seen live on Baton Rouge cable channel 38 — Fox Sports Net Southwest.