Oct. 2, 2016
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ATHENS, Ga. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" Three members of the Auburn volleyball team reached new career highs Sunday afternoon as the Tigers defeated Georgia, 3-1 (25-13, 25-19, 16-25, 25-20), in the Ramsey Center. The win moved Auburn to 8-9 on the season and 2-2 in SEC play.
"We did a good job getting Georgia out of system with our serving," head coach Rick Nold said. We saw some good passing from our back row and I think Alexa (Filley) did good job spreading offense for us."
Sophomore Brenna McIlroy finished with a career-best 21 kills and had a .417 hitting percentage for the Tigers. Freshman Gwyn Jones chipped in a career-high 15 kills, while senior Breanna Barksdale had eight. Junior Courtney Crable finished with seven kills.
Junior libero Jesse Earl led all student-athletes with 21 digs and picked up a career-best five service aces. Classmate Kelly Stewart had eight digs and three aces and Alexa Filley finished with 46 assists and nine digs. Barksdale led the Auburn defense up front with five blocks.
Georgia (12-5, 0-4 SEC) had two players with nine kills in Maddie Lobenstein and Desiree McCray. Libero Cassidy Anderson finished with 12 digs and setter Meghan Donovan finished with 30 assists.
After opening set one with a 4-0 lead, Auburn later pushed an 8-1 run to go ahead 16-7. A kill by Crable made it 20-10 and one from Jones put Auburn up 22-12. A pair of kills by McIlroy and a service ace from Earl lifted the Tigers to a 25-13 win.
The second stanza kicked off like the first with Auburn establishing a lead right away. A kill from Filley made it 5-1 and a Filley/Barksdale block put the Tigers up 7-3. The Bulldogs battled back to tie it up at 9-all before a kill from Jones stalled the UGA run and sent Auburn on a 5-1 rally, 14-10. The teams exchanged points the rest of the way until a kill from Barksdale sealed the 25-19 victory.
Georgia took the early lead in the third, but Auburn responded with a four-point run to go up 8-6. The Bulldogs weren't through and used a pair of 2-0 runs to take a 10-9 advantage. Locked at 12, UGA pushed a 9-2 run for a 21-14 lead and the home team took the set, 25-16.
Tied at four in the fourth, Auburn used a handful of small runs to go up 9-6 and then pushed a 5-0 rally to take a 13-8 lead. Kills from Crable and Jones put Auburn up 19-13, forcing a Georgia timeout. Earl recorded her fifth ace of the day to give the Tigers a 22-15 advantage and Auburn held off a late Georgia run to take the match, 25-20.
Auburn returns to Auburn Arena, hosting Missouri and Alabama. The two Tiger teams face off at 7 p.m. CT, Oct. 7, while the Crimson Tide comes to town for a 1:30 p.m. CT match, Oct. 9.