Oct. 4, 2015
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AUBURN, Ala. - Sophomore setter Alexa Filley finished one kill shy of a triple-double as the Auburn volleyball team won a 3-2 thriller (22-25, 25-16, 25-22, 17-25, 15-6) over LSU Sunday at Auburn Arena.
The largest crowd of the season - 1,015 fans - saw Auburn (10-5, 2-1 SEC) earn their third win over LSU (6-9, 2-2 SEC) in the last four meetings between the teams, and a collective team effort gave the Tigers the victory.
"We knew going in that defense would win that game," Auburn head coach Rick Nold said. "We did a really good job of continuing to work on our game plan against them. Toward the end we did a great job defensively. We also got some timely kills out of our hitters."
Filley had career-highs in kills (9), digs (20), aces (5) and added 43 assists and three blocks to lead Auburn to its second SEC win of the year. One more kill would have given her the first known triple-double in Auburn volleyball history. As it was, she posted her eighth double-double of the season, including all three SEC matches.
"Alexa's our captain and leader," Nold said, "and I thought she took command in a lot of different areas from serving to defense and running our offense and being a threat. When she's a focal point, it takes a lot of pressure off our other people."
She was able to distribute the ball to several other hitters as well. Junior Emily Klitzke led Auburn with 13 kills and added a block and three digs. Sophomore Courtney Crable posted a 13-kill night, and junior Stephanie Campbell hit a team-best .391 while adding 10 kills and three blocks.
Defensively, Auburn's back row stood tall, posting a season-high 97 digs. Freshman Brenna McIlroy led the defensive effort with 22 digs to go along with 20 from Filley, 19 from senior Alyssa Ivey and 17 from sophomore Jesse Earl. McIlroy also had eight kills, as did junior Breanna Barksdale.
Auburn had 63 kills as a team to LSU's 46 and hit .177 while holding LSU to a .149 clip. Auburn's 97 digs were six more than LSU's total (91), and Auburn had nine aces to LSU's four. LSU, however, totaled a match-best nine blocks to Auburn's four.
LSU's Gina Tillis led all hitters with 20 kills, giving her 57 across two five-set matches this weekend (37 vs. Georgia on Friday). Libero Haley Smith had a match-high 30 digs for LSU.
Auburn fell behind early and struggled offensively in set one, but battled back to keep the score close at the end before LSU eventually pulled out a 25-22 win. But Auburn would bounce back in set two, hitting .333 with 16 kills and just four errors to even the match with a 25-16 win. Campbell put down four kills on seven error-free swings in the second.
Set three saw numerous long rallies, 10 ties and four lead changes, but Auburn recorded 17 kills, two blocks and two aces to pull out a 25-22 win. Tied 20-20, Auburn scored three in a row on two straight Barksdale kills and a block from Barksdale and Filley to make it 23-20. LSU cut it to one, but a kill from Crable and an LSU error put it away.
After LSU won the fourth set to tie the match two sets apiece, Auburn came out on fire and jumped to a 10-2 lead. For the set, Auburn hit .227 with eight kills while holding LSU to just three kills and a .000 hitting percentage. Filley had two kills, two aces and a block in the deciding set.
Auburn hits the road for the first time in conference play next weekend. The Tigers will travel to Columbia, S.C., to face South Carolina on Friday, then head to Gainesville, Fla., for a Sunday afternoon match against the Florida Gators.
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