Aug. 31, 2012
Tournament Central | 
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AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn's volleyball team kept rolling Friday night, making quick work of High Point with a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-15, 25-17) at the Student Activities Center in the fourth match of the War Eagle Invitational.
Auburn (5-0) showed notable improvement from the day's earlier match, posting a sparkling .345 hitting percentage, the best for Auburn since hitting .381 in a three-set win over Alabama last season. High Point (3-2), meanwhile, earned a split in their matches Friday after defeating Jacksonville State in earlier action.
The Tigers defeated Georgia Southern 3-1 earlier in the day.
"Obviously, coming out and getting two wins was very important to us," Auburn Head Coach Rick Nold said. "But a lot of what we're talking about is trying to make improvements each game. I don't think our level of play was where it needed to be. But we made some changes, made some improvements, and that's what we're going to have to keep doing going into SEC play.
"It's tough to nail (our improvements) down to one thing, a lot of it is just about the presence we have on the court. You see that a lot of times in the aggressiveness of our offense and how we're scrambling on defense. I felt like we were just a little hesitant earlier, but we were much more aggressive (tonight) in getting after balls."
Auburn had 40 kills to High Point's 30 and out-dug the Panthers 39-30. The Tigers also were improved at the net, posting seven blocks to the Panthers' 30 and holding High Point to a .108 attack percentage.
Senior Sarah Bullock and junior Katherine Culwell led the Auburn offense with eight kills apiece, and Bullock added eight digs. Culwell also was involved in four blocks. Junior Courtney McDonald added seven kills and three blocks, and sophomore transfer Halle Kearney had six kills.
Junior libero Sarah Wroblicky led Auburn with 12 digs, and junior setter Chelsea Wintzinger had a game-high 19 assists.
The match was all Auburn from the start. The Tigers jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the first set and maintained the four-point lead at 16-12 until High Point cut it to a two-point margin. But from there, four errors in five rallies by the Panthers pushed the Auburn advantage to 20-15, and kills from CUlwell, Jersonsky and Kearney gave Auburn the first-set win, 25-19. The Tigers hit .385 in the set.
Set two was more of the same as Auburn rolled to a 25-15 win with the Tiger defense holding High Point to a minus-.062 hitting percentage. The score remained close for the first 25 rallies before Auburn finally pulled ahead to a 15-12 advantage on two straight blocks by McDonald and Culwell and a kill from Chloe Rowand. Auburn would finish the set on a 10-2 run, including another block from Jersonsky and Culwell and four straight kills from Culwell, Kearney and Bullock to end the set.
Auburn jumped out early in the third set, sprinting to a 12-5 lead and never looking back on the way to a 25-17 clinching win. The Tigers spread the ball around in the game with Bullock, Culwell, McDonald and Kearney all recording three kills each as Auburn hit .393 in the final frame.
In action Friday afternoon, Georgia Southern rebounded from an earlier loss to Auburn to sweep Jacksonville State 3-0. GSU will face High Point at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Tigers will wrap up the War Eagle Invitational with a 1:30 p.m. match against Jacksonville State at the Student Activities Center; admission is free.