Oct. 13, 2017
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AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" The Auburn volleyball opened the weekend at home Friday night in Auburn Arena and fell to LSU in straight sets (25-23, 25-23, 26-24). The Tigers move to 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the Southeastern Conference.
"Tonight was disappointing because I thought we were very tentative," head coach Rick Nold said. "Playing that way forced us into too many errors. LSU is a good team, but no team will come out on top by giving up a lot of points in each set on errors."
Junior Brenna McIlroy led the match with 10 kills, while senior Courtney Crable added nine. A trio of Tigers in sophomores Gwyn Jones and Shaina White and freshman Anna Stevenson finished with seven kills apiece.
Senior libero Jesse Earl had a match-high 19 digs to lead the Tiger defense. Jones had a team-best three kills, while Stevenson had her hand on two.
LSU (14-4, 5-2) was led by Gina Tillis and Jacqui Armer with eight kills each. Libero Raigen Cianciulli led the team with 16 digs, while Tillis finished with 10. Setter Anna Zweibel had a team-high 33 assists.
Auburn opened up the match with a 3-0 lead before LSU battled back to tie it up at 7-all. A kill from Stevenson sent the Tigers on a 5-1 run to push a 13-9 advantage, but the visitors responded once again and cut the AU lead by one, 18-17. After a McIlroy kill made it 23-20, LSU used a timeout and took momentum to close out the set with a 25-23 win.
LSU kept up the energy in the second and forged ahead, 6-3. The visiting Tigers held their lead and pushed a five-point advantage at 20-15 to force an Auburn timeout. AU rebounded with a 6-1 run to lock the set at 21-21, but LSU held on and took the stanza, 25-23.
After falling behind early in set three, the Tigers pressed a six-point run behind aggressive serving from setter Alexa Filley to go up 13-10. Kills from Jones and White made it 17-13 AU, but LSU capitalized on a timeout to cut the Auburn lead at 19-18. A pair of two-point pushes from the visiting squad locked the set at 22-all and after exchanging points, LSU used Auburn miscues to take the match, 26-24.
Auburn heads to the state of Texas Sunday, Oct. 15, taking on Texas A&M. The Tigers and the Aggies will square off at 1:30 p.m. CT in College Station and the match will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.