AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn volleyball team kept it close with No. 14 Florida Sunday afternoon, falling to the nationally-ranked Gators in four sets (25-21, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21) in Auburn Arena. The loss moved the Tigers to 10-15 overall and 3-12 in the Southeastern Conference.
"I'm proud of the way we battled today," head coach Rick Nold said. "We stayed aggressive all day and can take away a lot of positives from the match. Florida is one of those teams that will take advantage of a mistake and that's what got us in the end."
A pair of outside hitters had double-digit kills for the Tigers. Senior Brenna McIlroy led the team with 13 kills, while freshman Tatum Shipes chipped in 12. Sophomore Chesney McClellan set a career high with nine kills and classmate Anna Stevenson finished with six.
Freshman setter Mica Allison led all student-athletes with 38 assists and added five kills for the Tigers. Junior Gwyn Jones also added five kills on the day.
Defensively, Auburn finished with eight blocks in the match. McClellan and Jones led the squad with five blocks, while Stevenson had her hand on three. Sophomore Payton White had a team-best 10 digs and freshman libero Bella Rosenthall added nine.
Florida (21-5, 12-2) was led by Paige Hammons with 17 kills. Rachael Kramer added 10 and four blocks and libero Allie Gregory finished with 17 digs. Setter Allie Monserez had 25 assists and 11 digs for the Gators.
The Gators took a quick 3-0 lead in the first, but back-to-back kills by Jones locked the set up at 8-all. After another Florida run, the Tigers responded with a 6-2 push to bring the teams to the media timeout with a 15-14 lead. UF capitalized on late AU miscues to force an Auburn timeout with a 20-17 lead and another late push gave the visitors a 25-21 win.
A kill and a pair of aces by McIlroy highlighted the start of set two, giving the Tigers an early 4-2 advantage. A McClellan/Jones block made it 8-6 before the Gators responded to lock the stanza at 9-all. After exchanging points, another big block from McClellan/Jones forced a Gator timeout with the home team up 18-15. UF regrouped and used a 7-1 run to go ahead 22-19. Kills from McIlroy and Shaina White brought the Tigers within one at 22-21, but the Gators held for a 25-21 victory.
A handful of two-point rallies lifted the Tigers to a 9-6 lead in the third and blocks from McClellan and Jones highlighted a 4-0 Auburn run to give AU a 15-11 advantage, forcing a UF timeout. A kill from McIlroy and another Gator error made it 20-15 and a strike by Allison gave the Tigers a 22-18 lead. Shipes gave Auburn the set with a kill, 25-21.
More UF errors helped Auburn go ahead 3-1 in set four and a three-point push by the Tigers lifted the home team to a 7-4 lead. Florida responded with a 5-1 rally to take a slim 12-11 lead and the teams went into the media timeout with the Gators ahead, 15-13. Auburn battled back with the help of strong play from McClellan to tie it up at 16-all, but another three-point run for the Gators made it 20-17. Florida kept its advantage to the end of the set, 25-21, and took the match.
The Tigers head to Athens, Ga., for a Thursday night match at Georgia, Nov. 15. Auburn and the Bulldogs will face off at 6 p.m. CT.
Tigers Battle No. 14 Florida in 3-1 Loss
