Crouch earns 100th coaching victory in Tigers' sweep of UNA

AUBURN, Ala. – Making a little history inside Auburn Arena Thursday night, Auburn volleyball improved to 5-0 with a sweep (25-23, 25-13, 25-13) of North Alabama (2-6) to secure head coach Brent Crouch's 100th career coaching victory.

"Well, I didn't know about my own record, but obviously, I'm proud of that," said Crouch. "It's exciting, but on the other hand, let's get to the next game."

Auburn is now off to its best start since the 2012 season. The Tigers began that year 8-0 before suffering their first loss. The five straight sweeps to begin the season is the first for Auburn since 1974.

"The start to the season has been nice," Crouch added. "We haven't dropped a set yet, which is great. We've had some teams throw punches at us in quite a few matches, but we've managed to punch back. Today, in the first set, they came out with a lot of energy and were doing some things differently than what we'd seen on film. It really was a challenge for us early on, but I'm proud of my team because they didn't get down at all."

Senior Val Green turn in her best offensive performance of the season, leading the team with 12 kills on a .375 hitting percentage. Green also added an ace from the service line. Senior Tatum Shipes was efficient with six kills off seven swings for an. 857 hitting clip.

Graduate student Liz Reich added eight kills for the Tigers, while junior Rebekah Rath finished with seven. Senior Elif Yavuz added a career high six kills and three blocks at the net.

Sophomore Jackie Barrett called the Tiger offense, dishing out 30 assists at setter. Barrett added eight digs, an ace and a season high four blocks.

Defensively, Bella Rosenthall paced the team with a season-high 25 digs, just one short of her career high.

SET ONE
It was all North Alabama early in the opening stanza as the Tigers struggled to find any rhythm offensively. The Lions used a 6-0 run to jump out to a 9-15 lead, before back-to-back kills from Reich and Rath spark life for the Tiger offense. North Alabama answered right back with a big block to push its lead to 18-13 and force a Tiger timeout. Auburn continued to battle with a 3-0 run late to close the gap. Green put the Tigers in front with back-to-back touches for kills, 22-21. Attack errors plagued the Lions late and helped Auburn to a 25-23 set victory.
 
SET TWO
Behind a .409 team hitting percentage in the set, Auburn cruised to an easy 25-13 victory in set two. The Tigers hammered home three straight kills midway through the set to force an UNA timeout and build a four-point lead. Auburn closed the set on a 9-0 run, highlighted by a kill and block from Shipes.
 
SET THREE
After trading early points in the final set, Auburn broke away with help of another 9-0 run to break out, 14-6. The Tigers limited North Alabama's offense late with two timely blocks to prevent them from crawling back into the set. Yavuz put the set away with a big swing at the net.

UP NEXT
Auburn continues its homestand on Sunday with the addition of a single match versus Santa Clara at 1:30 p.m. CT. Sunday's match was added to the 2021 regular-season schedule following the cancellation of New Orleans due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.