CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Auburn volleyball team put together it's best offensive performance of the young season as it defeated George Washington, 3-1 (21-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-13), Sunday at the Knight Complex in the final match of the Hurricane Invitational.
"We feel really good about it," head coach Rick Nold said. "I thought we learned some things about ourselves. We played a lot cleaner volleyball both yesterday, and today. When we did that I thought we were really, really consistent. It was good for the team to see success when we were taking care of those things."
Senior Enija Bidzane led the way for Auburn throughout the weekend, totaling 41 kills in three matches, with 14 in the finale against George Washington. She also chipped in four blocks and a pair of digs in the match.
"She's stepped up huge for us this weekend," Nold added. "She's going into her senior year, you want to see how she responded. She brought it all. She's been a really big spark for our team and we're going to need that moving forward."
Junior Val Green matched Bidzane's 14 kills to lead the Tiger attack. Sophomore Tatum Shipes added seven and Chesney McClellan pitched in six to aid the Auburn offense.
Junior Payton White paced Auburn on defense with 14 digs, while right behind her was freshman Molly Pember with 13 and Shipes with 10. Sophomore setter Marissa Hines dished out 40 assists, while adding six digs. Senior Shaina White matched a career high with seven blocks to help the team finish with 10 total.
Auburn (3-3) stays on the road for the entire month of September as the team travels to Fort Worth, Texas, Sept. 14-15. The Tigers face Miami Saturday at 2 p.m. CT and follow on Sunday vs. Texas Christian.
SET ONE
Auburn opened the match on a 3-0 run capitalizing on early miscues from the Colonials. The Colonials answered back with a 4-0 run to take a 7-5 advantage. Shipes went deep court to pick up her second ace to tie the opening stanza at 14. Green earned her third kill to put Auburn up, 20-19, but GW capitalized on Tiger errors to take the set, 25-21.
SET TWO
The Tigers used a big offensive push, swinging .476 in the set with 12 kills coming from five different players and just two attack errors. Green notched a pair of kills on a 4-0 charge from the Tigers to go up, 12-6. Auburn closed the set on a 10-2 run using a big swing from S. White to bring the match to one set a piece, 25-13.
SET THREE
The Colonials opened the set with an early lead before the Tigers came back to take advantage of GW errors to draw even at 11-all. The two teams exchanged points for the rest of the set drawing square at 21. P. White recorded an ace to get Auburn to set point, before Bidzane closed the stanza with a kill at 25-22. The Tigers capped the set on a 4-1 push to go up 2-1 in the match.
SET FOUR
The Tigers jumped out to an early advantage in the fourth, highlighted by three-straight kills from Green to go up 13-6. Back-to-back kills by Bidzane pushed the Auburn lead and the Talsi, Lativa native closed the match with her 41st kill of the weekend to finish the set, 25-13. The Tigers eclipsed the .400 hitting percentage mark again in the final stanza with a .469 clip.