AUBURN, Ala. – Left sides Lauren Dreves and Madison Scheer combined for 26 kills on .324 hitting but it wasn’t enough as Auburn (14-5, 4-4) fell to LSU (12-7, 4-4) in four sets, 3-1 (25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 25-21).
Both offenses were firing early and often to begin the match. It was Auburn’s junior outside in Madison Scheer that found the most success. The Eureka, Missouri product fired four kills on her seven swings with no errors.
Despite six digs from Alexis Dacosta, the Orange and Blue found difficulty slowing down the LSU offense. A trio of scoring runs after the media timeout midway through the frame gave the visitors control and put Brent Crouch and his crew in a bind early.
Dreves along with Chelsey McCurdy delivered the first block for Auburn midway through the second. The Freshman from Vancouver, Washington added three more kills on six swings to her total.
Fallan Lanham dialed up an ace to spark a 3-0 run from the Tigers but again, LSU had enough firepower to answer the call to make it a two-set advantage.
Four blocks from McCurdy and two apiece from Scheer, Bel Zimmerman and Jasmine Okeoma highlighted a third set that saw Auburn hold LSU to just .081 hitting.
Everything was clicking in the third frame for Crouch and Co. Dreves tacked on five more kills. She would finish with a team-high 14 on an impressive .324.
McCurdy owned the middle of the court, powering down four kills and conjuring two aces to lead Auburn to a 25-20 set win and push the match into set No. 4.
It seemed as if neither offense could misstep in the fourth. Scheer, Dreves and McCurdy each landed four kills. Peyton Dunn and Kalei Edson directed an offense that hit .382 and Lanham found her second ace of the evening.
Still, LSU had the answer at each turn.
A Zimmerman kill made it 21-20 to the home side but the visitors rallied for five straight points to close out the match, 3-1.
MATCH NOTES
- Madison Scheer (12 kills) has reached double digits in 13 straight matches
- Lauren Dreves (14 kills) reached double digits for the seventh time this season and finished one kill shy of tying her career-high
- Fallan Lanham (2 aces) has recorded multiple aces in three straight matches
- Chelsey McCurdy’s 10 kills were the most for the graduate since securing 11 against Kentucky on Sept. 27
- Alexis Dacosta (16 digs) has reached double digits in nine straight matches
WHAT CROUCH HAD TO SAY
Opening statement…
“Obviously, the best hitter out there was Jurnee Robinson. She was unbelievable. They did a nice job against our right sides. Typically, our right sides are really good but she was incredibly good blocking over there too. So we started setting away from her. Usually, when both your outside hitters hit .323 and .324, that’s a recipe for success. That basically equals what Jurnee was doing. We just didn’t play defense at the end.
“It’s been a little bit of a theme for us, not showing up with the right energy in the first couple of sets, and we’ve got to fix that. That’s on all of us to do so. We didn’t start having the right energy until halfway through the second set. It’s just too casual. I’m not certain at this exact moment how we’re going to fix that but I am sure the team will step up and do it eventually.”