COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Auburn volleyball team closed out a long stretch on the road with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-10, 21-25, 25-16) loss at Missouri Friday night in Mizzou Arena. The match moved the Tigers to 8-11 overall and 1-8 in the Southeastern Conference.
"I was really proud of how the team regrouped in the third," head coach Rick Nold said. "We switched a lot of things up and am happy with how the team responded. Missouri is an incredibly efficient team on all fronts and plays great at home."
Highlighting the evening was the performance of senior Brenna McIlroy. In her second start at libero, the Garland, Texas, product led the team with 13 digs. With that number, she surpassed the 1,000th dig milestone and became just the seventh Tiger in program history to reach that career number in both digs and kills.
McIlroy also exceled from the service line, having six aces on the night. That total set a new career high for the Tiger. In addition, she set a career-best in assists with seven.
Freshman Taylor Rowland led the Auburn offense with 12 kills, while classmate Tatum Shipes finished with eight. Juniors Shaina White and Gwyn Jones chipped in seven kills each for the Tigers. White finished the match with a .417 hitting clip (7-2-12).
Freshman setter Mica Allison had 18 assists, while sophomore Morgan Kull came in in the third set and added seven assists as the Tigers switched to a 6-2. Junior Karis Beasley finished with nine digs.
Missouri (17-4, 7-2) was led by Kylie Deberg and Leketo Member-Meneh with 14 kills each. Setter Andrea Fuentes had a match-high 38 assists and liber Riley Sents finished with 20 digs.
Kills from Rowland and Jones lifted Auburn to an early 4-3 lead in the first, but the home Tigers responded with tough serving to go up 11-6. AU came out of a timeout with a run and cut the lead to one at 11-10 and another three-point Auburn rally locked up the score at 16-all, forcing a MU timeout. After Mizzou used more successful serving to go up 21-16, Auburn responded with the help of two McIlroy aces to make it 23-21 MU. The home squad, however, held to take the stanza, 25-21.
Mizzou continued momentum into the second and took a substantial lead at 15-5. Efficient play at the net for the home Tigers made it 23-8 and MU went up 2-0 in the match with a 25-10 win.
Back-to-back solo stuffs from Shipes and Rowland locked the third at 6-6 and two-straight Rowland kills pushed Auburn to an 8-7 advantage. More solid swings from Rowland and Shipes gave AU a 13-10 lead and a kill by Chesney McClellan triggered a five-point Auburn push, 18-12 AU. Mizzou attempted a comeback and came within two, 21-19, but a pair of strikes from Jones sealed the third for the visitors, 25-21.
A trio of two-point runs for Mizzou highlighted the fourth as the home team went up 9-5. A 4-0 push for MU gave the team a 19-9 lead. Auburn put together a trio of rallies to come within six at 22-16, but Mizzou took the final three points to win the match, 25-16.
Auburn finally returns to the comfort of Auburn Arena, hosting a pair of SEC matches next weekend. The Tigers first take on Ole Miss Friday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. CT. The squad followed with a 1:30 p.m. match against Arkansas, Oct. 28.
