Nov. 1, 2015
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - Auburn's volleyball team came within inches of ending Missouri's undefeated run at home, but Mizzou pulled out a five-set win (25-14, 19-25, 25-21, 15-25, 11-15) Sunday afternoon at the Hearnes Center.
It was the third-straight five-set defeat for Auburn (12-10, 4-6 SEC), all coming on the road in SEC play. All told, Auburn has played nine five-set matches this season, with four of them coming in the last five contests. Missouri (20-3, 8-2 SEC) improved to 9-0 at home this season and won its second-straight five-setter.
"I felt like we gave great effort," Auburn head coach Rick Nold said. "But it came down to us needing to make some plays. At that point you have to get back to basics a little bit. We had trouble doing that at some points. It's definitely a learning thing that we have to go through, and we have to learn how to step up in these situations."
Emily Klitzke led Auburn with 12 kills and hit a team-best .296. She also shared the team lead with four blocks. Courtney Crable and Stephanie Campbell had 11 kills apiece, and Brenna McIlroy picked up her fourth-straight double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. McIlroy also had three of Auburn's eight service aces on the day.
Setter Alexa Filley also had a double-double, her 13th of the year, with 43 assists and 13 digs. She also moved into sixth all-time at Auburn in assists; she now has 2,084 for her career. Jesse Earl led the Auburn defensive effort with 23 digs, and Breanna Barksdale matched Klitzke with four blocks.
For the second straight match, Auburn controlled several statistical categories - they had more kills (52-44) and digs (63-58), and each team had eight service aces. Mizzou hit .189 to Auburn's .182, but Mizzou's block was the difference in the sets they won as they had 13 blocks to Auburn's seven.
Auburn played a near-flawless first set, hitting .571 with 17 kills and just one error to take a 25-14 win. McIlroy, Campbell and Crable had four kills apiece in the opening frame, and three service aces - two from Kelly Stewart - kept Missouri off-balance throughout. Auburn got its other win in the third set, a 25-21 decision, which gave them a 2-1 advantage at the time.
The second and fourth sets saw Missouri jump out to big leads and never look back, although Auburn put up a strong fight down the stretch in set two after falling behind 9-0. In the fifth set, Auburn held a three-point lead at 9-6, but Missouri ran off five straight to take a lead they would not relinquish. It was as close as a one-point game at 12-11, but Missouri finished off the match with three straight.
Auburn returns to the friendly confines of Auburn Arena next weekend for a pair of home matches. The Tigers will host South Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday before taking on No. 12 Florida at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
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