Sept. 21, 2012
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AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn's volleyball team got a combined 39 kills from Sarah Bullock and Katherine Culwell and used a strong service game to defeat previously unbeaten South Carolina 3-1 (25-27, 25-16, 25-18, 25-22) Friday night at the Student Activities Center.
The Tigers (11-2, 2-1 SEC) had four different players with double-doubles and were able to use a strong service game to keep the Gamecocks (13-1, 2-1 SEC) off-balance throughout the final three sets. The Tigers also hit .342 as a team - their second-best percentage of the season - and got big performances from numerous players while holding South Carolina to a .241 hitting mark.
"That was a great win," Auburn head coach Rick Nold said. "They're a great team. Defensively, they put a lot of pressure on us, especially early. I thought the biggest thing we did to change the tide a bit was serve and serve-receive. They're a good passing team, and we started mixing some things up on serve to get them out of system."
Bullock came within one kill of her career-high, putting down 20 balls in the match while hitting for a .391 percentage. She also recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 13 digs, one of five Tigers with double-digit digs. She now has 990 career digs, just 10 shy of becoming Auburn's fifth all-time player with 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. Bullock was also Auburn's strongest passer, recording 43 service receptions without an error.
"I think a lot of that starts with our passing," Nold said. "When we can get our middle involved, it opens things up for all of our hitters. But I thought both (Bullock and Culwell) started off very aggressive and going at them before they had a good chance to get their block set up. But again, it all starts with passing, and we did a good job with that tonight."
Culwell narrowly missed hitting the 20-kill mark for the second straight match, finishing with 19 kills and 12 digs for her second double-double of the year. She also recorded a career-high six blocks. And Camila Jersonsky had her fourth match of the season in double-digits, posting 10 kills to go along with seven blocks and five digs. And Chloe Rowand hit .583 for the match, putting down seven kills on 12 attacks with no errors.
Both Auburn setters posted double-doubles for the second straight match. Chelsea Wintzinger led with 28 assists and 12 digs while Ciara Richards had 27 assists and 14 digs. Sarah Wroblicky led all Auburn defenders with 17 digs.
Richards and Wroblicky were key components of the service game that kept the Gamecocks off-balance throughout the final three sets as the two combined for five of Auburn's eight service aces. It marked Auburn's most aces in a match since recording 11 against Tennessee-Martin on Aug. 28, 2010.
"We thought more about getting them moving. We were serving aggressively but almost right to them in game one. And they were passing very well with that, so we just needed to get them moving some, then just try to find ways to take them out of system."
Auburn had 65 kills to Carolina's 54 and won the digs battle 75-65. The Tigers also recorded 10 blocks in the match while South Carolina had just four.
A back-and-forth first set that saw 19 ties and five lead changes ultimately went Carolina's way, 27-25. Both teams were near the .300 mark in hitting, but the Gamecocks managed to get the big kill at the best time. Neither team led by more than three points in the set. Auburn fought off two set points at 24-23 and 25-24, but an Auburn error at 25-25 set up the Gamecocks' Sarah Blomgren to get the clinching kill.
After Auburn fell behind 4-0 early in set two, the Tigers went on an 11-1 run - including two aces from Wroblicky - to take an 11-5 lead. From there, the Gamecocks would get no closer than four points as the Gamecocks would hit .462 in the set en route to a 25-16 win. Culwell and Jersonsky had four kills apiece, but the service game came up in a big way, posting five aces in the set - two from Wroblicky and one each from Culwell, Jersonsky and Richards.
Set three would be a much closer affair for the first few points, but Auburn eventually started to pull away, moving ahead 15-11 on back-to-back kills from Bullock and Culwell. An ace from Richards made it 16-11, and the Tigers kept pulling away, eventually coming away with a 25-18 win. Bullock and Culwell caught fire in the third with seven kills apiece and Auburn hit a blistering .486 in the frame.
The fourth set would see the lead change hands five times and eight tie scores, but the Tigers used a late 4-0 run to propel them to a 25-22, match-clinching win. South Carolina controlled the early part of the set, leading by as much as five points, before Auburn steadily climbed its way back into the set. The Tigers called a timeout trailing 18-17, but got on a roll from there, getting two points on Gamecock errors and two more on Bullock kills to take a 21-18 lead they would not relinquish. Bullock had six more kills in the final set, and the Tigers recorded four total blocks to account for two-thirds of the Gamecocks' six hitting errors.
Juliette Thevenin led South Carolina with 22 kills and 18 digs, hitting at a .370 clip, and Gamecock libero Paige Wheeler had a match-high 20 digs. Setter Taylor Bruns recorded 40 assists.
Auburn will wrap up a two-match SEC homestand Sunday afternoon as rival Alabama visits the Student Activities Center for a 1:30 p.m. match. Admission is free to all Auburn home volleyball matches.