Aug. 30, 2016
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AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" After falling behind 2-1, the Auburn volleyball team put together a late comeback to defeat Kennesaw State, 3-2 (25-18, 21-25, 15-25, 28-26, 15-10), Tuesday night in Auburn Arena.
"It was truly a hard-fought match," head coach Rick Nold said. "Kennesaw State is a really good team and they've proven that over the years. We wanted to make sure we were competing all the way through. Our team learned a lot about themselves in this match and were really aggressive at the end."
The Tigers (1-3) had a trio of attackers with double-digit kills as senior Emily Klitzke led the way with a season-high 16. Sophomore Brenna McIlroy finished with 12 kills and 10 digs, while freshman Gwyn Jones chipped in 11 kills.
Defensively, Auburn had four Tigers with double-digit digs in the team's 79-dig performance. Junior Jesse Earl totaled a season-best 26 digs, while classmate Kelly Stewart added 15. The backrow duo also had three aces a piece. Junior setter Alexa Filley totaled 13 digs to go with her 53 assists. Senior Breanna Barksdale finished with three blocks, while McIlroy and Jones totaled two.
The Owls (1-3) were led by Liesl Engelbrecht with 14 kills and three blocks, while Amariah Boyer and Sydni Shelton finished with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Setter Kristie Piedimonte had 46 assists and 10 digs and libero Katarina Morton had a match-high 27 digs.
Auburn capitalized on KSU errors to open the first set and jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead. Back-to-back kills from Klitzke made it 16-6 and another Owl error put the home team up 20-7. KSU put together a solid run to close out the set before kills from McIlroy and Klitzke sealed a 25-18 win.
It was back and forth to start set two until a four-point KSU run led to a 13-9 advantage. Kills from McIlroy and a Stewart ace locked the score at 14-14 and it was once again an exchange of points. Down 20-19, the Owls benefited from Tiger errors and took the set, 25-21.
KSU used momentum following intermission and went up 7-4 in the third stanza. A handful of two-point runs lifted the Owls to a 19-10 lead and the visitors went up 2-1 in the match with a 25-15 set victory.
Back-to-back kills by Barksdale put the Tigers ahead 3-2 in set four and back-to-back Auburn blocks made it 7-4. KSU used a timeout to regroup and battled back to take a slim lead at 8-7. The Owls held a slight margin throughout the rest of the set until a kill from freshman Enija Bidzane and an Earl ace tied it up at 21. Another Bidzane kill made it 23-all, but the Owls grabbed their first match-point at 24-23. After another KSU match-point (26-25), a kill from Stephanie Campbell and one from McIlroy put Auburn up 27-26. Jones sent the match into the fifth with a big kill, 28-26 Tigers.
Auburn's energy followed into set five and two-straight kills by Klitzke put the Tigers ahead 7-4. A big block from Campbell and Jones forced an Owl timeout, 9-6, and a Bidzane kill set the score at 10-7. Three of the final five Auburn points came from big swings by Klitzke and an ace from Abigail Miller gave the Tigers their first win of the season, 15-10.
The Tigers go away from Auburn for the first time this year with a road trip to Louisville for the Active Ankle Challenge, Sept. 2-3. Auburn will take on Stony Brook, Santa Clara, and host Louisville in the KFC Yum! Center.