Tigers fall to Ole Miss in SEC opener

AUBURN, Ala. – Despite jumping out earlier to take the opening set by five points, Auburn volleyball (8-2, 0-1 SEC) came up short against Ole Miss (12-0, 1-0 SEC) as the Rebels won, 3-1 (25-20, 19-25, 19-25, 18-25), in Wednesday's Southeastern Conference opener at Auburn Arena.

Offensively Auburn was spread evenly as three Tigers closed the night with double-digit kills. Junior Rebekah Rath paced the team with a match-leading 19 kills. Rath added a pair of assists and six digs.

Senior Val Green chipped in 13 kills with one assists and three digs. Green led the team with two aces from the service line. Graduate student Liz Reich closed the match with 10 kills, four digs and a pair of blocks.

Sophomore Jackie Barrett dished out 34 assists and added one kill, one ace and a pair of blocks. The setter closed the night with 12 digs to pick up her fifth straight match with a double-double.

The Tigers totaled seven team blocks with seniors Tatum Shipes and Elif Su Yavuz each recording three apiece. Senior Bella Rosenthall rounded out the Tiger defense with 13 digs to extend her streak of consecutive matches with at least 10 digs to 10 straight.

SET ONE
It was all Tigers in the first set as Auburn jumped out to a 4-0 lead with a kill and service ace from Green and a big Tiger block. Ole Miss pulled within two, but Auburn used a pair of kills from Shipes and one from Reich to build the lead back up to 9-3 and force a Rebel timeout. The offense continued to hammer home the kills and took advantage of an Ole Miss miscue to extend the lead to 18-7. Ole Miss continued to battle and fought off five set points, before Rath put the set away, 25-20, with her fifth kill.
 
SET TWO
Ole Miss jumped out a four-point lead early, but Auburn battled from behind, ultimately using a pair of kills from Reich to tie the set at 13-all. The Rebels broke away late on an 8-1 run with help of a pair of service aces to tie the match with a 25-19 set victory.
 
SET THREE
Ole Miss's offense jumped out early to build a nine-point lead that Auburn could not overcome. The Rebels were aided with a.357 hitting percentage in the third stanza while racking up 17 total kills. Rath led the Tigers in set three with six kills, while attacking at a .333 clip.
 
SET FOUR
The Tiger offense struggled to find rhythm as the Rebels held the team to just nine kills in the set. Auburn was able to capitalize on Rebel errors to pull with four, 18-22, with freshman Jordan Sinness at the service line before the Rebels closed the match on a 3-0 run.
 
UP NEXT
Auburn returns to non-conference competition on Sunday, making the short trek to Montgomery, Ala., to face Alabama State. First serve is set for 3 p.m. CT.