BATON ROUGE, La. – The Auburn volleyball team fell on the road at LSU Sunday afternoon in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-23). The Tigers moved to 8-10 overall and 1-7 in the Southeastern Conference.
"We had some very good moments in this match with members of our young squad getting some valuable experience," head coach Rick Nold said. "This is a tough conference and we've been on the road a lot to start the SEC season. We just need to continue to learn from every opportunity and take that into the next week."
Freshman Tatum Shipes had a career-best 10 kills for Auburn, while junior Gwyn Jones chipped in eight with a .467 hitting clip. Freshman setter Mica Allison led the squad with 31 assists on the day.
Senior Brenna McIlroy got the first start of her career at libero, finishing with 13 digs for the Tigers. Junior Karis Beasley and Allison added seven a piece in the match. Sophomore Anna Stevenson totaled four blocks to lead the front row defense, while junior Shaina White and Shipes had three each.
LSU (7-11, 2-5 SEC) had a trio of student-athletes with double digits kills. Taylor Bannister and Milan Stokes totaled 11 kills each, while Sydney Mukes had 10. Setter Anna Zwiebel finished with 36 assists and libero Raigen Cianciulli led the match with 19 digs.
The teams exchanged points to start the match, seeing five ties in the beginning of the first. LSU pushed a late rally on a four-point run to go ahead at 18-13 and forced an Auburn timeout with a 20-14 lead. The visiting Tigers responded with a three-point push and then a 4-0 rally to lock the set at 22-all, but LSU took the final three scores to win the set, 25-22.
LSU held momentum into the second and took an 8-1 advantage. Another push by the home team made it 11-4 and Auburn took a timeout with LSU going ahead 17-8. AU regrouped out of the break and capitalized on a handful of LSU errors to come within three at 23-19. However, the comeback came just short as the home team took the set, 25-21.
It was another back-and-forth affair to open the third with the teams exchanging points. The LSU Tigers capitalized on scrappy play to push a 5-0 run for a 15-10 lead, bringing the squads to the media timeout. The Bayou Bengals continued with their lead until Auburn held of six-straight LSU match points. The home team, however, finally took the contest, 25-23.
Auburn continues on the road, traveling to Columbia, Mo., for a Friday night match vs. Missouri. The two Tiger squads are slated to go head-to-head at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC+, Oct. 19.
