Oct. 8, 2006
STARKVILLE, Miss. -
The Auburn University volleyball team was swept by Mississippi State, 3-0 on Sunday at the Newell-Grissom Building in Starkville. The loss drops the Tigers record to 11-8 overall and 3-5 in the SEC.
Sophomore Jessica Glover led AU with 13 kills and added six digs. Junior Rachel Shanks totaled nine kills and seven digs, and senior Julie Bosler added seven kills and six blocks.
"We are just out of sync offensively," head coach Laura Farina said. "We are going to have to find a way to get our rhythm back."
In game one, the Bulldogs jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead, but Auburn cut that advantage to two with three unanswered points. After exchanging points, AU's serving errors found them down by seven (26-19) but a 9-2 run evened the score at 28. MSU answered with back-to-back points and took the opening stanza, 30-28. Shanks totaled four kills in the game and each team had seven service errors.
With the Tigers leading 5-4 in the second stanza, Mississippi State went on a 7-1 run to take control, 11-6. With MSU's lead up to seven, Auburn scored four-straight to move within three, 15-12 and another 3-0 run pulled AU within two. The Tigers got as close as one (21-20), but the Bulldogs' offense took hold of the stanza and came away with the 30-25 win. Glover led AU with eight kills in the second.
State opened the third stanza with another 6-1 run, and extended that lead to 11-3 with five unanswered points. Auburn called a timeout at 20-13 and scored three-straight to get within four, but that is as close as the Tigers could get the rest of the way as AU fell, 30-22.
The Tigers will be back at home on Friday, Oct. 13 to take on LSU at 7 p.m. at the Student Activities Center and on Sunday to face Arkansas at 1:30 p.m. at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.