COLUMBIA, S.C. – Junior outside hitter Madison Scheer became the fastest player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills on Sunday afternoon. However, Auburn’s late rally wasn’t enough for the Tigers (14-6, 4-5) to get by South Carolina (12-6, 3-4) in four sets, 3-1 (25-19, 26-24, 16-25, 25-20).
Hometown favorite Bella Bell was one of the bright spots offensively for the Tigers in set No. 1. The Blythewood product found three kills to lead the Tigers on her six swings.
Despite the success, the Auburn defense had trouble slowing down the Gamecocks in the early parts of the match. Midway through the opening frame, USC was hitting close to .400.
Better serving from the Orange and Blue saw Lauren Dreves go on a 6-0 run to tie the set at 14 apiece. The home side answered quickly with a 4-0 run late to take control and ultimately put Auburn behind early.
Brent Crouch’s crew battled early to begin the second set. Both offenses were operating at an impressive clip, over .600, with the set tied at 11.
Scheer found her third kill of the afternoon, bringing her career total to 1,000. The Eureka, Missouri product became just the 16th player in program history to reach the feat and the first since Brenna McIlroy (2015-18).
Again, South Carolina dialed up a bit of momentum offensively to collect a 4-0 and take control of the set.
Bel Zimmerman added four kills in the second frame alone while Bell climbed her way to five on .364 hitting. Freshman Lauren Dreves started to find a groove as well. By the end of the set, Dreves had collected four kills with no errors on a .286 hitting percentage.
Crouch and co. showed no signs of packing it in. Even down 24-19, the Tigers rallied for a 5-0 run that included a Scheer ace and two blocks from Zimmerman to force a Gamecock timeout.
Even though South Carolina found the kills to make it a two-set lead, Auburn had felt it had found some momentum at the end of the frame.
Defense was the name of the game in the third for the Tigers. Auburn added five more blocks to its total, ending the set with 13.5, including a team-high seven from freshman Jasmine Okeoma. The Woodbridge, Virginia product finished with a career-best eight.
From start to finish, everything went right for the Orange and Blue. Zimmerman, Scheer and Dreves all found a bevy of success on the pins.
Auburn’s offense hit for a blistering .458 but behind the blocks and Alexis Dacosta’s digs, the Tigers held USC to a flat .000 hitting to force the match into a fourth set. Dacosta stacked up a team-high 15 digs by the end of the afternoon.
The Orange and Blue certainly started off the fourth much like the end of the third. Blocks, digs and high-octane offense had Auburn up midway through the set.
Dreves, the rookie sensation from Vancouver, Washington was purely dominant. She would finish with 14 kills, zero errors on .359 hitting to go along with eight digs and four blocks.
Late in the frame, however, South Carolina put together a 6-1 run, leapfrogging the Tigers and running the clock out before Crouch and his squad could force a fifth set.
MATCH NOTES
- Madison Scheer reached 1,000 career kills, becoming the 16th player in program history to do so and the first since Brenna McIlroy (2015-18)
- Scheer (11 kills) has reached double digits in 13 straight matches
- Lauren Dreves finish with 14 kills for the second-straight match
- Dreves’ four blocks tied her career-best
- Bel Zimmerman (11 kills) reached double digits for the 13th time this season
- Chelsey McCurdy notched her second straight match with six blocks
- Alexis Dacosta (15 digs) reached double digits for the 16th time in 2024
- Jasmine Okeoma finished with a career-high eight blocks
WHAT CROUCH HAD TO SAY
Opening statement…
“Disappointing that we weren’t able to bring the right energy at the beginning of the match again. I thought once we started going, we gave them plenty of problems, both at the end of the second set and the entire way through the third. This league is just too difficult and the margins are too thin to let down in any way. You have to be able to bring the right focus each and every set. We’ll get back in the gym and figure out how to get off to the start that we need to.”