Sept. 9, 2011
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Auburn matched their season-high with 10 blocks against a tough Miami squad on Friday night, but fell to the Hurricanes 3-0 (14-25, 22-25, 16-25) in the opening match of the Hurricane Invitational at the James L. Knight Sports Complex.
The Tigers (5-3) were strong defensively as they had their second match of the season in double-figures with blocks, but Miami (8-0) proved to be too strong with their attack and remained undefeated on the year.
Sarah Bullock led the Tigers with eight kills; she also had nine digs in the contest. Kelly Fidero finished with six kills, five digs and four blocks, while Camila Jersonsky had five blocks along with three kills. Libero Sarah Wroblicky finished with a team-high 14 digs, and Chelsea Wintzinger recorded 22 assists.
Miami out-hit Auburn by a .268 to .139 margin, recording 46 kills against the Tigers' 34. The Hurricanes also won the digs battle 61-54, but were outblocked 10-4 by the Tigers.
The first set started well for the Tigers as they jumped out to an early 5-2 lead, but the Hurricanes would go on a 6-0 run to force an Auburn timeout. From there, the Hurricanes stayed in control, extending their lead throughout the set and eventually taking a 25-14 win. In the set, Auburn hit .091 while the Hurricanes swung at a .368 clip.
Set number two saw the Tigers outhit Miami .191-.143, but the Hurricanes took a 25-22 win to take a two-game lead in the match. The difference in the second set was in the service game as Miami scored a pair of aces with no errors while the Tigers had no aces but three errors on serve. Auburn never led in the set, but rallied from a 19-15 deficit to cut the margin to 22-21. Miami then scored two in a row, and Auburn was able to fight off one set point but not the second.
Miami jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the third set, but Auburn would not go away quietly. The Tigers rallied to cut the deficit to 13-9 after three straight kills from Vesela Zapryanova, Bullock and Fidero, but Miami would then pull away with three straight points of their own. Miami had 15 kills to Auburn's 11 in the set, out-hitting the Tigers .333 to .129.
The Tigers will conclude the non-conference portion of their schedule Saturday with a pair of matches to wrap up the Hurricane Invitational. Auburn faces No. 18-ranked Oklahoma at 9 a.m. CT and then closes out the week with a 3 p.m. match against Florida A&M. Live stats will be available through AuburnTigers.com, and @AUVolleyball on Twitter will have live updates throughout both matches.