SAVANNAH, Ga. — Completing an epic reverse sweep in the second round of the SEC Tournament, No. 8 Auburn (17-10, 7-8) took down No. 9 Oklahoma (16-11, 7-8) in five sets, 3-2 (21-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-13) on Saturday.
The Tigers will advance to the quarterfinals, where they’ll face No. 1 Kentucky (22-2, 15-0) on Sunday, Nov. 23 at Noon ET inside Enmarket Arena.
Neither side could manage much breathing room in the opening set.
Bel Zimmerman dove into the match early, picking up four kills on her seven swings. The Tigers were strong at the service line with senior Sydney Handel picking up an ace. However, Auburn couldn’t stop Oklahoma from hitting over .300.
Head coach Brent Crouch and Co. got as close as 22-21 before the Sooners found the right buttons to press to close out the first set and for the Tigers to play from behind.
Set two was eerily similar to the first. Lauren Dreves found six kills on eight swings before exiting the match due to injury. Both Kate Mansfield and Grace Havlicek piled up rejections.
However, Auburn just couldn’t find the answers to stop the Oklahoma offense. The Sooners hit .333 compared to the Tigers’ .171 as the Orange and Blue trailed by two sets to none.
Crouch and Co. do not quit, though.
With Dreves out, Auburn switched from a 6-2 offense to a 5-1, with both Zimmerman and Liz Markovska playing all six rotations.
Facing adversity head-on, the entire group rallied behind each other to find a massive spark. Shanelle Puetz guided an offense that hit .481 behind six kills from Markovska and five more from Zimmerman.
Zimmerman would finish her afternoon with a career-high 20 kills, two aces and a block.
Defensively, it was Alexis Dacosta chasing down digs. The senior from Katy, Texas stacked up 18 total for the match. Auburn only dialed up two blocks in the third, but solid serving (2 aces) kept the Sooners to just .200 hitting as the Tigers got on the board.
The Tigers needed more of the same in the fourth frame. Five kills apiece from Zimmerman and Markovska propelled their squad enough to have a chance to force a decisive fifth.
Down 22-20, Crouch called a timeout. Again, his team answered the call.
Zimmerman powered home a kill, and Puetz followed to give Auburn a set point. Coming up clutch, Zimmerman’s ace sent the match into a fifth and final set.
Playing with house money in the fifth, Puetz and the offense looked free-flowing in the final stanza. The Tigers hit .391 behind eight combined kills from Auburn outsides.
Once more, though, the set came down to the final three points. This time, the Orange and Blue trailed, 13-12, before mounting one last rally.
After a service error, Zimmerman and Markovska hammered home the final two nails in the coffin to complete Auburn’s epic reverse sweep.
WHAT CROUCH HAD TO SAY
Head Coach, Brent Crouch
Opening Statement…
“Unbelievable match. One of the most unbelievable matches I’ve ever been a part of, in really any role. I’m not frankly surprised. I knew that if we played the way we talked about playing beforehand - we talked about needing to be able to hit serves in, we needed to hit the ball in the court repeatedly, and we just needed to limit our errors. We thought if we played a clean match, then we could beat this team. We did not do that the first two sets. We had a bunch of missed serves and we had a bunch of balls out of bounds.
“When Lauren (Dreves) went down, we needed to change the lineup. It didn’t really change much for me. I thought this team knows how to play, they do it every day in practice. We just needed to do exactly what we said we were going to do before the game. Play clean, let’s hit the ball in, let’s make good swings when we have them and let’s serve our targets well. And we did that in the third, fourth and fifth sets. It did not really matter what the lineup was. We have a deep team. I just wasn’t surprised that people were able to step up and do what they did. And hats off to you, Bel (Zimmerman), getting to play six rotations. You haven’t done that much, but you do it every day in practice. You didn’t do anything in a game I haven’t seen you do. Just an incredible performance from these two next to me and really the whole team. Really proud of everyone.”
MATCH NOTES
- Auburn earned its first SEC Tournament win since 1999, improving its record to 6-19
- Head coach Brent Crouch is now 53-39 all-time in five-set matches
- Eden Bower recorded four blocks in back-to-back matches
- Kate Mansfield (4 blocks) has recorded at least four blocks in three straight matches
- Bel Zimmerman compiled a career-high 20 kills
- Alexis Dacosta (18 digs) reached double figures for the 17th time this season
- Grace Havlicek (4 blocks) has recorded at least four blocks 19 times this season
- Shanelle Puetz delivered a season-high 33 assists
- Liz Markovska tied her career high with 20 kills, last earning the feat against Texas