Sept. 9, 2008
TROY, Ala. - Playing in front of the largest crowd to ever watch a volleyball match at Troy's Trojan Arena, Auburn pulled out a 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 25-14) win over Troy. The Tigers improve to .500 on the season after winning their last four matches for a 4-4 record. Troy falls to 4-4 on the season.
While the crowd of 1,523 went home disappointed after the loss, the victory was extra sweet for Auburn head coach Wade Benson as it is the 200th of his career. He now holds a 200-66 record as a head coach, including eight seasons at the NCAA Division I level and one season at the NAIA level.
"It is a pretty cool thing to get that many wins in your career but, honestly, I had not even thought about that," said Benson. "I'm just excited about picking up the win tonight and honored that I could reach this milestone as Auburn's head coach."
Sophomore Alyssa Davis came off the bench to lead the Tigers to the win, posting a career-high 12 kills and a .381 attack percentage. Five of Davis' 12 kills came in a convincing 25-14 win in the fourth set that sealed the victory for Auburn.
"Alyssa did a great job for us tonight, she was a lot more aggressive, especially in that last set, and that really helped us pull out this win," said Benson. But, as I have said throughout the preseason, wins and losses are not our focus right now, it is all about improvement. And while I saw some good things out on the court tonight, we already have a list of things to work on before going to Michigan this weekend."
Right behind her was senior Jessica Glover posting a double-double, tallying 11 kills and 12 digs in the win, coupled with a .308 attack percentage.
Defensively, sophomore libero Liz Crouch led the team with 17 digs while Glover and Davis tallied two blocks apiece.
Leading Troy was junior Meghan Gilroy with her match-high 16 kills. Three Trojans finished the match with double-digit digs, led by Meghan Washlow with 15.
Auburn returns to action at 5 p.m., Friday against Toledo at the Pepsi Challenge in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Tigers will also play Oakland and host No. 25 Michigan over the weekend.
The Trojans jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set, but Auburn battled back to take its first lead at the 11-10 mark. The Tigers gave up the lead after four unanswered Trojan points forced Benson to take his first timeout at the 18-15 mark. Auburn countered with four straight points of their own to re-take the lead en route to the 25-21 win.
Milena Bukinac led Auburn with four kills in the set, followed by three from Alyssa Davis. Liz Crouch tallied six digs to lead the Tiger defensive effort.
This time it was Auburn jumping out to the 4-1 lead as the Tigers led throughout the entire second set for the 25-21 victory. AU stretched its lead to nine at the 20-11 mark, but Troy went an 8-2 run to cut the lead to three. The Tigers bounced back to score three of the next four points for the win.
Jessica Glover came up huge in the second set, leading the team with four kills while Davis chipped in another three. Crouch picked up another six digs in the set to lead Auburn defensively.
Troy came out of the break ready to attack, scoring six of the first seven points of the set to take an early lead they would never give up for the 25-20 win. Auburn was able to cut the lead to one at the 19-18 mark, but the Trojans were able to pull back away for the set victory.
Lauren Mellor led the Tigers with four kills in the set while Glover tallied four digs.
Auburn exploded out of the gate in the fourth and final set, leading 4-3 before an 8-2 run opened up a seven-point lead. The Tigers would go on to extend that lead to 11 points while turning in the 25-14 lead.
Davis led the way for Auburn as she tallied five kills in the set. Glover chipped in an additional four kills.
Auburn improves to 2-0 all-time over Troy with the win. It was also the second time in as many years for Auburn to earn a 3-1 victory over Troy as the Tigers opened the 2007 season with a 3-1 win over the Trojans at the War Eagle Invitational.