Earline Hebert Adams
December 4, 2006
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For the third time in six years, LSU is BCS Bowl bound, as the fourth-ranked Tigers will face 11th-ranked Notre Dame in the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.
“We are very excited to be heading to the Sugar Bowl and to play in a BCS Bowl,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “Our team is looking forward to this game. You want to celebrate a great season with a quality opponent in a bowl game and Notre Dame offers just that. Anyway you cut it Notre Dame is a great team. They only lost two games, which were to two highly ranked teams and they have great tradition. They have great history and it should be a tremendous match up.”
LSU will be making its 13th trip to the Sugar Bowl, three of those appearances coming this decade. The Tigers beat Illinois, 47-34, in the 2002 Sugar Bowl and then followed that with a 21-14 win over Oklahoma in the 2004 Sugar Bowl to claim the 2003 BCS National Championship.
LSU is 5-7 all-time in Sugar Bowl contests. Both LSU and Notre Dame bring identical 10-2 records into the contest and both the Tigers and Irish had their only losses of the season come to teams ranked in the top 10. LSU dropped road games to Auburn and Florida, while Notre Dame lost to Michigan at home and to Southern Cal on the road.
The Sugar Bowl matchup will be LSU’s first against the Irish since a 39-36 loss in South Bend in 1998. LSU is 4-5 all-time against Notre Dame, which includes a 1-0 mark in bowl games. LSU beat Notre Dame, 27-9, in the 1997 Independence Bowl in Shreveport.
Notre Dame is looking for its first bowl win since defeating Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl to cap the 1993 season. The Irish stand 13-14 in postseason play and have lost eight straight bowl games.
Miles said he is not disappointed about missing out on coaching in the Rose Bowl. He did say that the commitment LSU fans made to buying Rose Bowl tickets was remarkable.
“You have to understand that when you have 42,000 pre-sale tickets from our fans into a venue like the Rose Bowl it increases the prestige of this program. Everybody understands that our fans always travel well and any bowl game that gets us will have a great number of LSU fans and I was so proud in seeing the 42,000 fans willing to go to the Rose Bowl. I just felt like ‘Wow,’ that shows how powerful this fan base can be,” Miles said.
LSU has already sold out of its allotment of Sugar Bowl tickets, going through the 17,500 it is allotted to the contest before going on sale to the general public.
“It’s going to be a great event and we are excited about having the opportunity of bringing LSU football to the wonderful city of New Orleans and to the Louisiana Superdome,” Miles said. “The idea that we have already sold our allotment of tickets for the Sugar Bowl tells me that our fans are excited about playing there. It is going to be a great venue and certainly there are a number of family members and friends that could have not made that west coast trip. They are going to be able to go down to New Orleans and enjoy this game – I promise.”
BASKETBALL TEAMS EACH NOTCH TWO VICTORIES
The men and women’s basketball team each had undefeated weeks as both squad’s posted two victories. The men improved to 4-1 by beating McNeese State at home, 91-57, and Tulane on the road, 74-67. Against McNeese State, Garrett Temple (17 points), Tasmin Mitchell (16 points, seven rebounds), Glen Davis (15 points, seven rebounds), Ben Voogd (12 points, six assists) and Darnell Lazare (11 points, six rebounds) led the way. Against Tulane, Davis had 20 points and 13 rebounds while Temple added 18 points and six assists. Dameon Mason chimed in with 12 points, while Mitchell added 11 points and seven rebounds. The men will play host to Texas A&M on Tuesday. The Tigers’ lone game this week starts at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast by Fox Sports Southwest.
The Lady Tigers defeated UNO on the road, 65-45, and then beat Detroit, 80-44, at home on Saturday. Against UNO, Sylvia Fowles had 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead LSU. Erica White added 15 points and six assists. Against Detroit, Fowles scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Quianna Chaney chimed in with 15 points for LSU, which doesn’t play again until a 2 p.m. Dec. 10 contest at home against Ohio State.
VOLLEYBALL TEAM ENDS ITS SEASON
The LSU volleyball team ended its season after losing to California in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. After taking the first game, the 16th-ranked LSU volleyball team could not keep it going as the Tigers fell to 14th-ranked California, 25-30, 30-23, 30-17, 30-16 in California.
The loss ends LSU’s season at 26-6, as the Tigers tied for the most wins in a season since 1992 and captured their second straight Southeastern Conference Western Division title.
After hitting .410 in the first game, the Tigers did not hit above .133 in any game after. Conversely, the Golden Bears hit .227 in game one and improved steadily after that to a match-best .565 in game four. California posted 66 kills, 11 blocks and 61 digs in the match, while LSU recorded only 49 kills with 11 blocks and 40 digs.
Marina Skender and Kyna Washington led the Tigers with 12 kills each, followed by Melody Clark with 10. Clark led the team in blocks with four, while Kassi Mikulik posted a team-best 10 digs. She finished the season having recorded double-figure digs in every match with a school record 535 digs.
Les Miles and the LSU Tigers are headed to a BCS Bowl games for the first time since winning a national championship in 2004. The No. 4 Tigers will face No. 11 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 3, 2007. “You want to celebrate a great season with a quality opponent in a bowl game and Notre Dame offers just that,” said Miles. Photo by Steve Franz/LSU
