Nov. 5, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. -
The Auburn University volleyball team fell to No. 11 LSU, 3-2 (30-24, 28-30, 22-30, 30-17, 16-14) on Sunday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, stretching its losing streak to six. The loss gives LSU the season-series, 2-0. With the loss, AU falls to 12-15 overall and 4-12 in the SEC, while LSU improves to 21-4 overall and 13-3 in the conference.
Junior Rachel Shanks led the Tigers with 20 kills and 23 digs for her 16th double-double of the season, sixth 20-plus kill effort on the year and first 20-20 performance. Sophomore Jessica Glover collected a double-double of her own with 11 kills and 18 digs. Senior Dalia Naidzinaviciute came on strong for AU, recording eight kills, while juniors Jelena Sekulic and Whitney Jacob each dug 15 balls.
"We played well enough to win against a very good LSU team," head coach Laura Farina said. "I am very encouraged with how Dalia played. She helped to provided us with another offensive weapon."
Tied at five in game one, LSU went on a 9-1 run to take an eight point lead (14-6). AU cut the lead to four on two occasions but couldn't get any closer the rest of the way, falling 30-24. Auburn hit .042 in the opener, while LSU hit .167.
The Auburn Tigers roared out to a 6-2 lead to begin game two, but LSU tied it at 10 with four-straight points. AU answered with three-straight points of its own, but Louisiana State tied it back up at 13 and led 16-14 behind a 6-1 run. Auburn countered back, tied the stanza at 17 and eventually took a 23-20 lead. AU maintained the advantage the rest of the way, taking game two 30-28 and entered intermission tied at one apiece.
For the second straight game, AU jumped out to a 6-2 advantage and built it to a 12-5 lead. Auburn maintained the lead, and three straight points caused LSU to take a timeout at 18-12. LSU closed the gap to 23-19, but the Tigers had more answers and forced LSU to take its final timeout with AU ahead, 26-20. Auburn continued is solid play and rolled to a 30-22 win in game three. AU hit .257 in the third and held LSU to a .000 hitting percentage.
In game four, LSU held a small early lead and built it up to a 17-11 advantage before Auburn used its first timeout. That did not stop the bleeding as LSU continued to attack and scored four straight points for a 10-point advantage (21-11), forcing AU to call another timeout. LSU continued the assault until a service error stopped the 10-0 run. Louisiana State closed out the fourth stanza and took a 30-17 win into game five.
LSU continued its momentum to begin the fifth, holding an early 6-2 lead, but Auburn did not fold and clawed back to tie it at seven. The squads battled back-and-forth until LSU held a 14-12 advantage, but AU once again tied the game back up (14-14). LSU scored the next two points, finishing on an error by Naidzinaviciute, to win 16-14.
Auburn will return home for its final homestand of the season, as the Tigers will take on Mississippi State on Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Student Activities Center. AU will then face Ole Miss on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Sunday will be Senior Day as Auburn will honor its two seniors, Julie Bosler and Dalia Naidzinaviciute.