STARKVILLE, Miss. – It was a back-and-forth effort in all three sets (23-25, 23-25, 26-28) at the Newell-Grissom Building, but Auburn volleyball (13-15, 5-13 SEC) came up just short to No. 24 Mississippi State (25-6, 16-2 SEC) on Friday.
The Tigers concluded the regular season with the program's most conference victories since 2018 and the most overall victories since 2017.
Junior Rebekah Rath led the Tigers with 12 kills for her seventh straight double-digit kill effort of the season. Rath ended the season with at least 10 kills in 24 of Auburn's 28 matches. Rath concluded the season with 438 kills, the program's single-season record for the rally-scoring era. Rath added four digs and three block assists in Friday's contest.
Turning in her 11th double-digit kill performance of her senior season, Val Green chipped in 10 for the Tigers on a .292 hitting percentage. Green was also credited with a dig in the match. Graduate student Liz Reich turned in a strong effort on the right side with seven kills on a .294 clip. Reich added one block and a dig.
The trio of sophomore Jackie Barrett and seniors Tatum Shipes and Elif Yavuz rounded out Auburn's offense with two kills each.
Barrett dished out 26 assists to carry Auburn to a .226 hitting percentage in the match. Barrett also added nine digs and two blocks on defense.
Closing the match with seven blocks as a squad, Shipes led the effort with five. She earned her 22nd solo stuff of the season to finish second in Auburn's single-season history. With four block assists, Shipes brought her season total to 120, the fifth most by a Tiger in program history regardless of era. It was the most block assists by an individual since 1999.
Shipes ended the season with 142 total blocks to jump Rani Whitson (1994) for fourth in program history (overall). Shipes will end her senior campaign with the program's single-season records for block assists, total blocks and blocks per set in the rally-scoring era.
Defensively, senior Bella Rosenthall paced the Tigers with 14 digs while also closing the match with four assists. Rosenthall will end the season fourth in single-season history (rally-scoring era) in total digs with 495.
Rosenthall edged out Sarah Bullock (2009-12) for seventh in Auburn career history with 1,211 in her Auburn career. Rosenthall is just the eighth Tiger in school history to record over 1,200 digs in a career.
SET ONE
After three early ties, Auburn put together the first scoring run of the match powered by a pair of kills from Green to jump ahead 7-5. After trading points, the Bulldogs put together a 5-0 run to regain an 11-8 advantage. Auburn used kills from Reich and Shipes and its first block of the match to tie the set at 13-all. The teams traded a pair of ties, before a 3-0 run by State. Powered by a pair of blocks from Yavuz, Auburn battled back once more to tie the set at 19-all. The two squads would trade four more ties with Rath's fifth kill of the set securing the final tie at 23-all. Mississippi State would pull away with the 25-23 victory with back-to-back kills.
SET TWO
The Tigers relied on three early kills from Rath and a service error by the Bulldogs to battle from behind to lock the set at 9-all. The two squads traded points for six ties before State used a 4-0 run to take a 20-17 advantage late in the set. A late kill from Shipes cut the Bulldog lead to one. After trading errors at the service line, Barrett tied the set up at 23-all with her first kill of the match. A kill from Shania Cromartie and an Auburn attack error delivered State a 25-23 victory.
SET THREE
Using effort on all sides of the ball, Auburn built a 6-4 advantage. After trading a pair of ties, Auburn took advantage of wide attacks by the Bulldogs to hold a 10-8 advantage. Auburn spread its offense with kills from Reich, Barrett and Green to take a 15-12 advantage at the media timeout. Mississippi State used a 3-1 run out of the timeout to cut Auburn's lead down to one. After a pair of State kills to tie the set, Auburn responded with a pair of kills from Reich and another from Rath to force a Bulldog timeout. State responded with three straight points to tie the set at 23-all, before Green provided set point for the Tigers with a kill. State answered with a pair of kills from Lauren Myrick to put State ahead 24-25 to force an Auburn timeout. Both squads traded points to lock the set up at 26-all before Mississippi State's offense connected for a pair of kills to take the set 28-26.
Tigers conclude season at No. 24 Mississippi State
