Sept. 3, 2016
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" The Auburn volleyball team went into intermission trailing No. 21 Louisville, 0-2, and came out of it swinging, using tough serves and solid defense to pull off a 3-2 (15-25, 17-25, 25-14, 25-22, 15-8) comeback victory over the Cardinals Saturday night. The match was the final one of the Active Ankle Challenge in the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
"Louisville is a really good team and were very efficient the first two sets," head coach Rick Nold said. "We came out with a new mentality in set three and started really fighting for points. When you do that, things start working out in your favor and that's what happened to us tonight."
The Tiger servers took care of business beginning in the third set, putting the Cardinals (4-2) out of system on a consistence basis and allowing the Auburn offense to capitalize on free balls.
"We really tightened up our serving after the break and got them out of system a lot," Nold added. "That forced Louisville into some errors and we took advantage of it."
The win moved Auburn to 3-4 on the season. Santa Clara captured the tournament title after going 3-0 on the weekend.
Sophomore Brenna McIlroy and junior Alexa Filley were placed on the All-Tournament team for the Tigers. McIlroy led the Auburn offense with a season-high 18 kills, while Filley finished with another double-double of 48 assists and 19 digs. Senior Emily Klitzke added 13 kills and freshman Gwyn Jones had 11 with two blocks.
Defensively, junior Jesse Earl put together a 16-dig performance, while sophomore Abigail Miller had a career-best 10 digs. Junior Tate Pember added six digs and a team-best two service aces.
The Cardinals (4-2) were led by Melanie McHenry with 14 kills and 16 digs. Tess Clark and Janelle Jenkins added 12 kills apiece and libero Molly Sauer had a match-high 20 digs.
Kills from Filley and McIlroy put the Tigers up early at 4-3 in the first set. Tied at seven, the Cardinals pushed a five-point run to go up 12-7. Another long Louisville run lifted the home squad to a 17-9 advantage and the Cards took the set, 25-15.
Louisville took a quick 4-2 lead in set two and held its slim margin until a handful of Cardinal errors pushed Auburn ahead at 9-8. The Cards responded with a run to go up at 16-11, forcing a Tiger timeout. Louisville went into intermission with a 25-17 win.
Auburn used tough serving to take a 7-4 lead in the third stanza and Cardinal errors lifted the Tigers to a 12-9 lead. The Auburn service line continued to put Louisville out system and more Cardinal miscues pushed the Tigers up 17-12. A trio of Klitzke kills made it 20-13 and kills from Stephanie Campbell and McIlroy gave Auburn a 25-14 victory.
The Tigers maintained momentum in set four and pushed a 7-5 lead. A pair of Campbell/Filley blocks followed by a trio of Louisville attack errors made it 14-9 Auburn. A kill from Klitzke put the Tigers up 19-15 before the Cardinals regained some energy to take a 20-19 lead. Back-to-back swings by Jones gave Auburn its lead back at 22-21 and the Tigers forced the deciding set with a 25-22 win.
The visiting team opened the fifth with a 5-1 run highlighted by trio of kills from McIlroy. The Cardinals battled back and cut the Tiger lead at 6-5. Three Louisville errors put Auburn up 10-7 and a kill from McIlroy gave the visitors match point at 14-8. Pember sealed the Tiger win with a service ace, 15-8.
The Tigers return to Auburn Arena, Sept. 9-10, and host the Auburn Invitational. The team opens with a pair of matches vs. Memphis and Miami (OH) Friday and close out the weekend with a 1:30 p.m. match vs. Jacksonville.