Oct. 25, 2006
AUBURN, Ala. -
The Auburn University volleyball team fell to No. 7 Florida, 3-1 (30-17, 30-22, 29-31, 30-27) on Wednesday at the Student Activities Center in Auburn. The game three win over Florida snapped a streak of seven-straight shutouts for the Gators over their opponents. With the loss, AU falls to 12-12 overall and 4-9 in the SEC, while Florida improves to 19-2 overall and 12-1 in the conference.
Junior Rachel Shanks led the Tigers with 18 kills while adding 14 digs and five blocks for her 13th double-double of the season. Junior Whitney Jacob had 10 kills and 11 digs for her eighth double-double and junior Jelena Sekulic had a team-high 15 digs, her second-highest total of the season. Senior Julie Bosler stuffed back six blocks and sophomore Joanna Pappas dished out 47 assists on the night.
"We finally started to find our rhythm tonight," head coach Laura Farina said. "We struggled offensively in game one, but really competed well in games three and four. Rachel played a great match and did a lot of little things to help this team tonight."
With the game tied at nine in game one, the Gators went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead. After two points by AU, Florida went on a another run (10-3) to put the game out of reach and win, 30-17.
Auburn's 1-0 lead to start game two was the only lead the Tigers could garner in game two. The Gators maintained a steady four-to-five point lead for most of the stanza before pulling away late for a 30-22 victory.
After the intermission, Florida jumped out to a 7-3 lead, but a 6-1 run by Auburn tied the third game at eight. The two teams battled back and forth the rest of the way, and with the game tied at 29, Jacob recorded back-to-back kills to give AU the win, 31-29.
Down 9-7 in game four, the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to grab a 13-9 lead. A kill by sophomore Jessica Glover gave Auburn a 19-15 lead and resulted in a yellow card being issued to the Florida bench. The momentum turned, and the Gators battled back to tie the game at 21. After a series of one point leads for AU, Florida tied the game at 25 and took the lead for good on the next point. A service error by freshman Whitney Hobbs sealed the game and gave UF the 30-27 win and the 3-1 match victory.
Auburn will head out on the road as they look to take the season series from in-state rival Alabama on Friday in Tuscaloosa at 7 p.m. Ben Taylor and John Searby will have call all of the live action on WANI-AM 1400.