Sept. 14, 2012
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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Senior Sarah Bullock had 10 kills and matched a career-high with 21 digs, leading the Auburn volleyball team to a 3-0 win (25-20, 25-16, 25-19) over Mississippi State Friday night at the Newell-Grissom Building.
The Tigers (10-1, 1-0 SEC) continue one of the best starts to a season in school history, winning 10 of their opening 11 games for the first time in program history. Auburn got a measure of revenge over MSU (4-6, 0-1 SEC) after the Bulldogs won both meetings between the teams a year ago.
"I'm really happy to get our first SEC win for the year," Auburn Head Coach Rick Nold said. "This was a great defensive match. They came in leading the league in digs, but we did a good job playing within our system, competing on the long rallies. I think the other key was probably serve and serve-receive. They were serving tough, and I thought our passers did a good job controlling the situation."
Bullock picked up her third double-double of the season and inched closer to the career 1,000-dig plateau. With 21 tonight, she now has 972 for her career, just 28 shy of the four-digit mark. It was Bullock's third match with 20+ digs in her career; her previous match with 21 digs came in her freshman year at Arkansas.
"I thought Sarah did a great job controlling the back line," Nold said. "Offensively, they did a good job on her early, but she figured out how they were defending her and she got a good run going later in the match."
Junior Camila Jersonsky had nine kills - seven in the first set alone - and six blocks, and junior Sarah Wroblicky matched Bullock for the team-high in digs with 21. Katherine Culwell added eight kills, seven digs and five blocks, and Kathia Rud had five kills and a pair of blocks. Freshman Ciara Richards led Auburn with 19 assists, and Chelsea Wintzinger had 17 assists and seven digs.
Auburn hit an even .200 as a team and held Mississippi State to .089, the first team Auburn has held below the .100 mark this season. The Tigers had 41 kills to MSU's 32 and out-dug the SEC's leader in digs 64-61. Auburn also controlled the play at the net, recording 11 team blocks to MSU's five.
The Tigers got seven kills from Jersonsky - only one less than MSU had as a team - to win the first set, 25-20. Despite some stingy defense from State, Auburn controlled the early part of the first set and jumped out to a 13-8 lead while getting kills from seven different players and benefitting from five MSU errors. After a 3-0 run by the Bulldogs cut the lead to just two points, the Tigers answered with a 3-0 run of their own, getting two kills from Jersonsky and an ace from MacKenzy Harper to make it 17-12. State would not go quietly, getting back to within two points once again, but a block from Rowand and McDonald, plus two more MSU errors, got the lead back to five points. Jersonsky would get kills on her final two swings of the set to put it away.
The Tigers controlled the second set from start to finish, taking a 25-16 win. Auburn jumped out to a 9-4 lead courtesy of two blocks and a kill from Jersonsky, along with a block and an ace from Bullock. Rud, getting her first extended playing time of the season, helped the Tigers extend that lead to 18-8 with two kills and two block assists. The Tigers had 13 kills in the set and out-hit MSU .281 to .056, getting six total blocks in the frame.
Auburn again jumped to an early lead at 10-6, but the Bulldogs, with strong play from their left side and a fortunate roll off the net on a service ace, went on a 5-0 run to take an 11-10 lead. The Tigers, though, answered quickly with a 3-1 run to go back ahead 14-12 and force an MSU timeout. Auburn would never trail again, increasing the lead to 20-15 after a pair of State errors, and Bullock would put the match away herself with two kills and a solo block to secure the victory with a 25-19 third-set win.
The Tigers will travel to College Station, Texas, tonight in preparation for Sunday's match at Texas A&M. The first meeting between the two schools as conference foes is set for a 1 p.m. first serve, and fans can follow the action via live video and live stats (AggieAthletics.com) or by following @AUVolleyball on Twitter.