Sept. 1, 2015
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn volleyball team used an efficient, effective attack to make quick work of Florida A&M in a 3-0 win (25-14, 25-20, 25-15) Tuesday night at Auburn Arena.
The Tigers (4-0) hit .356 as a team, putting down 49 kills with just 12 errors on the night. The middle of the floor was especially effective for Auburn as junior middle blockers Emily Klitzke and Breanna Barksdale combined for nearly half the Tigers' kills.
"I thought we were really efficient offensively," Auburn head coach Rick Nold said. "We wanted to come out and be sharp. We took a little bit of a dip in game two. They're a team that's got a little different style, and I felt like we kind of started playing their game. But overall, I'm really happy. I thought we stayed aggressive offensively and passed the ball really well."
For the second straight match, Klitzke put down a career-high seven blocks to go along with 11 kills and a .348 hitting percentage. Barksdale led the Tigers' attack with 13 kills on 19 swings, hitting .579 on the night.
Sophomore setter Alexa Filley filled the stat sheet in all areas, posting seven kills on an error-free nine attempts (.778) along with 36 assists, six digs, five blocks and two service aces.
"We need Alexa to be an offensive threat," Nold said. "She's a great defensive player and server, too. She can give us a lot of things. Last year we didn't pass the ball well enough for her to be as involved offensively, so that was definitely an emphasis for us."
In all, Auburn had 12 blocks on the night, holding FAMU (0-4) to an .071 hitting percentage. Along with Klitzke's seven and Filley's five, Barksdale was in on four blocks while Macy Reece had three blocks along with seven kills in her first start of the season. Sophomore libero Jesse Earl led the Tigers defensively with 13 digs.
FAMU jumped out to early leads in each of the first two sets, but the Tigers responded both times. In the first, it was 4-1 Rattlers before Auburn went on an 11-1 run to move ahead 12-5. From there, FAMU never got closer than six points in a 25-14 first-set win. Set two was a back-and-forth affair, but a stretch of two blocks and a kill by Klitzke broke a 17-17 tie and sparked an 8-2 run to close out the set.
The Tigers jumped out to a big lead in set three and never looked back, holding the Rattlers to a .000 hitting mark while putting down 14 kills of their own.
Auburn wraps up a five-match homestand Friday night as Syracuse visits Auburn Arena. First serve is set for 7 p.m., and admission is free.