Oct. 12, 2016
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AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" The Auburn volleyball team used an efficient, effective attack to earn a 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-19) sweep of Georgia Wednesday night in Auburn Arena. The win gave Auburn its sixth-straight home win over the Bulldogs.
"I think we came out really aggressive in serving and put them out of system a lot, which was one of our goals tonight," head coach Rick Nold said. "We handled the ball really well and that let our offense spread out a lot. Every win is big at this point of the season, but this one will really bring out confidence."
The Tigers (10-10, 4-3 SEC) hit a season-best .367 as a team, having 42 kills with just nine errors on the night. Auburn held the Bulldogs to an .076 clip, the lowest by an Auburn opponent this season.
Freshman Gwyn Jones finished with 12 kills and a .474 attack percentage, adding three blocks for Auburn. A trio of Tigers in senior Breanna Barksdale, junior Macy Reece, and freshman Enija Bidzane chipped in seven kills apiece. Reece hit a scorching .875 for the home squad. Junior Courtney Crable added six kills in the match.
Junior setter Alexa Filley had her 11th double-double of the season, finishing with 29 assists and 12 digs. Bidzane set a career-high with 10 digs and junior libero Jesse Earl also put together a 10-dig performance. Reece had a hand on four of Auburn's seven team blocks.
Georgia (13-7, 1-6 SEC) had two players with six kills in Maddie Lobenstein and Majesti Bass. Libero Cassidy Anderson led all student-athletes with 14 digs.
A five-point run in set one led to a quick 7-2 advantage for Auburn and a kill from Barksdale sent the Tigers on a 9-1 run for a 16-5 lead. A kill by Jones followed by a handful of Bulldog errors made it 23-9 and Crable sealed the set with a kill, 25-11.
Auburn continued momentum into the second and jumped ahead, 4-1. A kill from Reece and a pair of Reece/Jones blocks highlighted another Tiger rally, pushing the home squad up 13-6. Two more kills from Jones and one by Bidzane lifted Auburn to an 18-10 advantage and the Tigers went to intermission with a 25-16 victory.
Georgia held a slim lead to start set three and pressed ahead at 12-9, forcing an Auburn timeout. The Tigers began to chip away at the Bulldog lead and a kill from Crable sent Auburn on a run to go up 17-15. A solo block and a kill from Barksdale gave the Tigers match point and Auburn took the win, 25-19.
Auburn closes out its homestand with a 12 p.m. CT match vs. Mississippi State. The two teams will square off Sunday, Oct. 16, and the match will be broadcast on SEC Network. The match will be Auburn's "Dig Pink" event for breast cancer awareness.