Oct. 2, 2011
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AUBURN - Three Tigers had double-digit kills, and two posted double-doubles as the Auburn volleyball team swept away SEC foe South Carolina 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-17) on Sunday afternoon at the Student Activities Center.
Auburn (9-7, 3-3 SEC) earned its fourth win over South Carolina (9-6, 0-5 SEC) in the teams' last five meetings, and the Tigers improved to 4-1 on their home court in 2011.
"We weren't as sharp offensively today," Auburn head coach Rick Nold said. "But we made some adjustments with our blocking, and we stayed really steady. For us to be the better team, we've got to play through times where, offensively, we're not clicking.
"I thought we did a good job serving and keeping them out of system as much as we could. Coming off (Friday's loss to Florida), I was interested to see how we would respond today, and I was really happy with them."
Senior Kelly Fidero led the Auburn offense with 14 kills, one shy of a season-high and her fifth-straight match with double-digit kills. Junior Sarah Bullock picked up her third double-double of the season with 12 kills and 11 digs, and sophomore Camila Jersonsky had 11 kills on 18 attacks with no errors for a sparkling .611 hitting percentage.
Sophomore Chelsea Wintzinger was a key to both the Tigers' offensive and defensive efforts, posting her second double-double of the year with 27 assists and 14 digs. She also displayed toughness throughout the match, taking a couple of hard shots to the head - one necessitating a jersey change - but fighting through adversity.
"That's something you go through; not everything goes exactly how you draw it up," Nold said. "I thought she did a good job keeping her head straight and finding open people. Kelly was hot, and even when (South Carolina) started keying on her, we kept going to her and she kept pulling them out. As a setter, you've got to decide between feeding the hot hand and keeping everybody else going, too. You can see with the balance in our offense we were able to do that today."
Auburn hit .237 for the match and held the Gamecocks to a .086 percentage. The Tigers scored 41 points off kills and won the digs battle 58-49 against the nation's ninth-best squad in digs per set; junior MacKenzy Harper matched Wintzinger for the team lead with a career-high 14. The Tigers also had eight blocks in the game, led by Courtney McDonald with three. Auburn also matched a season high with six service aces; Wintzinger and Harper had two apiece.
Both offenses were a bit sluggish in the first set, but the Tigers were able to pull ahead at 14-11 thanks to a Harper ace, a block from Vesela Zapryanova and a kill from Jersonsky. That lead would eventually become 20-16 after kills from Fidero and Bullock, and another Fidero kill and a McDonald block made it 22-17. Another block from Bullock would end matters with the Tigers taking a 25-19 first-set decision despite hitting just .150 as a team; Carolina managed just an .024 mark.
In set two, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead and never trailed after the first few points, building a 12-7 lead. Back-to-back service aces from Wintzinger made it 15-10 and forced a Gamecock timeout before Carolina then rolled off three in a row. From there, though, Auburn would make a 5-2 run to get it back to a five-point lead, and held on for a 25-19 second-set win.
Set three, however, was all Auburn as the Tigers rolled to a 25-17 victory. Auburn jumped out to a 6-1 lead and were ahead by as wide a margin at 13-4 before Carolina scored three in a row to make it 15-10. The Gamecocks, however, would get no closer than five as Auburn hit .484 in the set - 17 kills with just two errors on 31 attacks - and held Carolina to an .097 clip. Jersonsky and Bullock carried the Tiger offense in the third with both recording five kills; Jersonsky scored four of Auburn's final five points to close out the match.
The Tigers face a quick turnaround with a nationally televised midweek match on tap. Auburn will travel to face SEC rival Georgia on Wednesday night with ESPNU set to provide the broadcast. First serve is set for 6 p.m. CT at the Ramsey Student Center on the UGA campus.