Collins Named AP All-American

Article by Michael Bonnette  Photo Steve Franz
BATON ROUGE – The honors for LSU senior offensive lineman La'el Collins continued to roll in on Tuesday as he was named second team All-America by the Associated Press, the news agency announced.
Last week, Collins was named second team All-America by USA Today as well as being selected to three first team All-SEC teams. Collins, who was named LSU’s most valuable player at the teams’ annual banquet on Sunday night, also earned the Jacobs Block Trophy as the top offensive lineman in the SEC.
Collins started all 12 regular season games for the Tigers at left tackle, helping pave the way for an LSU offense that ran for 219 yards a contest. LSU rushed for 300 or more yards four times in 2014, including 384 in a 23-17 win over Texas A&M. The 384 rushing yards against the Aggies were the most by any LSU team since 1997.
For the year, Collins led all LSU offensive linemen in total snaps (792) and knockdowns (84.5).
Collins and the rest of this LSU teammates enter the second day of bowl practice today as the 23rd-ranked Tigers continue to prepare for their game against Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville.

LSU Women's Hoops to Take on Louisiana Tech

Posted by Louisiana Gazette. Photo by:Steve Franz, LSU Athletics Staff Photographer
BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s basketball team returns to the hardwood and faces off with Louisiana Tech Wednesday evening as the Lady Tigers play their final game before a 10-day break for final exams. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:02 p.m., and the game will be nationally televised by the SEC Network. Louisiana Tech (2-2) has split its opening four games on the season and collected road victories over Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M. The Lady Techsters are coached by Tyler Summitt, son of Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt. Whitney Frazier has garnered a team-leading 14.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. She has connected on 42.0 percent of her field goals. JaQuan Jackson has chipped in 10.8 points and 2.2 assists per game. “After our trip to Mexico, we wanted to get back to the United States. We’ve had three very intense practices since returning,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “We’ve been very competitive in our practice. We’ve seen a lot of great strides as far as getting better in some areas that have challenged us. I feel as though offensively we’ve done a nice job in being more efficient in the half court which is an area that we’ve struggled in. Defensively, we’ve really worked at changing up our defense and being very consistent on our full court pressure as well. We feel like that has been a strength of ours. We’re looking forward to finally getting back to action tomorrow against a very good Louisiana Tech basketball team.”

Volleyball Draws Oklahoma in NCAA Tournament

Article by Clyde Verdin Photo by Kyle Zedaker, LSU Athletics Student Photographer
BATON ROUGE, La. – After closing out the 2014 regular season winning 14 of their final 15 matches, the LSU volleyball team did not have to wait long to hear its name called Sunday night, earning a bid to the 2014 NCAA Volleyball Championship, traveling to Eugene, Ore., to take on the Oklahoma Sooners on Thursday, Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the first round.
Taking place on campus sites Dec. 4-6, the Tigers are in the part of the bracket that leads to Minneapolis as one of the four predetermined sites for the regional semifinals and finals, but first will head to the Pacific Northwest as the host Ducks will welcome the Tigers, Sooners and Santa Clara Broncos for the first two rounds of competition.
“It’s always great to hear your name called and it pops up on the screen,” head coach Fran Flory said. “This is a very tough regional with some very strong teams, and we are looking forward to the challenge. We are very familiar with them and it should be a very good group of matches.”
LSU, finishing third in the Southeastern Conference with a 19-8 overall record and 14-4 league mark, will meet the Sooners, the second place team out of the Big 12 Conference with a 20-10 mark and 10-6 conference record. The last time the two teams faced off against one another was in 1999, as the Tigers currently hold a 7-3 all-time record against OU in program history.
The winner of the LSU-Oklahoma match will face the winner of the 10th-ranked Ducks and Broncos, which will take place at 9 p.m. that night. This side of the bracket also features No. 7 North Carolina, Hampton, Costal Carolina and Southern California, as the winner of that sub-regional will be waiting in Minnesota in the first of two matches there.