AUBURN, Ala. – The psychological impact of a block might exceed the point it adds to the scoreboard.
“It’s a big momentum shifter,” said Auburn sophomore Kate Mansfield, the SEC’s block leader. “It gets the crowd going, it gets your entire team going. On the other side of that, it’s really demeaning. It’s soul crushing when you get blocked. The energy shift of volleyball is really important to our game. That’s what blocking does for us.”
Fellow sophomore middle blocker Grace Havlicek ranks No. 5 in the SEC in blocks.
“When you get blocked it makes you feel horrible,” Havlicek said. “When we get blocks and we set records, it motivates us to continue that and try to become the No. 1 team in the nation and stay at No. 1 in the SEC.”
Nothing energizes Neville Arena like a block party. Auburn ranks atop the SEC and No. 2 in the nation with 3.34 blocks per set.
“When we get a huge block, everybody’s on the floor screaming,” Havlicek said. “It fuels us to try to take down the other team. Blocking has played such a big part in our game this season so far.
After starting her college career at Cal, Mansfield found a fresh start on the Plains.
“I belonged in the South,” said Mansfield, a middle blocker in high school in Plano, Texas, who played on the right side as a freshman at Cal. “I’m really excited to be here. The entire team culture brings us together on the court. Auburn is my home and I’ve found that in more ways than one.
“Having a program that believes in me to be a middle blocker and do my job means a lot to me,” “Brent (Crouch) and the other coaches have done a great job getting me back into it.
“Brent had a great vision for this program, and I could see through meeting some of the girls that they had great hearts and great soul and were going to work hard. It’s all working out.”