NEW ORLEANS – The LSU New Orleans Privateers will play twice against the Southeastern Lions this week. The first match will take place in Hammond on Tuesday night. The return trip to the Human Performance Center, which is also the Privateers' Senior Night, will take place at 6:30 p.m.
 
Six seniors will be honored ahead of Thursday's match against the Lions in Ryan Williams, Peyton Cole, Defne Eciroglu, Rylie Hallman, Laura Piva and Elani Ratchkovska for their contributions to the Privateer program over their time on the Lakefront.
 
LSU New Orleans split a pair of matches last week with a victory at Nicholls and a loss at McNeese. The Privateers were tied 23-23 in the third set against McNeese and were threatening to extend the match, but were turned away after two attack errors sealed the Cowgirls' victory.
 
Two Privateers are knocking on the door of collegiate milestones heading into the week. Eciroglu is 37 assists away from achieving 2,000 for her career. Vladana Ristic needs 13 more digs to reach 1,000 for her collegiate career.
 
Ristic has posted 39 digs over her last two matches, and 61 over her last 13 sets played for an average of 4.69 per set. Ristic had a season-high 20 digs in the Privateers' victory at Nicholls last Thursday. For the season, she is averaging 2.23 digs per set.
 
The Privateers have been tantalizingly close in many sets against conference opponents this season, and to that, they have improved their point total per set. In 2025, the Privateers scored an average of 13.9 points per set against conference opponents. This year, heading into Tuesday, that total has jumped to 15.5 points per set.
 
LSU New Orleans is 45-32 all-time against Southeastern. They are 15-13 all-time in Hammond and 23-14 in New Orleans. The Lions have won the last seven matches in the series since the Privateers' last victory in 2022.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Southeastern is currently mired in a four-way tie for first place in the Southland standings with UTRGV, UIW and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lions are 10-2 against Southland foes and are 5-1 at home this season. Two Lions student-athletes won Southland weekly awards. Kyra McKelvey was Offensive Player of the Week after recording 41 kills. Ashley Richardson won Setter of the Week honors after notching 88 assists and 22 digs last week.
 
SEASON TICKETS
Tickets for all home matches are available here.
 
ABOUT LSU NEW ORLEANS
In July of 2026 the University of New Orleans rejoined the LSU system and rebranded to "LSU New Orleans" bringing together two powerful brands - the purple and gold of LSU with the unbreakable spirit of New Orleans. The transition marks a return to the LSU family for the University - a place it called home from 1958-2011. Athletic teams will remain the Privateers and continue to compete in the Southland Conference.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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