AUBURN, Ala. — Freshman Greer Chambless dialed up a career-best .545 hitting percentage and Lauren Dreves dropped in 11 kills but it wasn’t quite enough for Auburn (16-8, 7-6) to keep pace with No. 6 Texas A&M (20-3, 12-1), falling in three sets, 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-21).
The Tigers struggled to find the right buttons to press in the opening set, offensively. Even though Chambless, the freshman from Dallas, Texas powered home three kills on her six swings, Auburn still hit .000 for the set as the Aggies piled up four of their five blocks in the opening frame.
Grace Havlicek found three blocks of her own in set one, and Liz Markovska solidified two herself. Still, Texas A&M hit .400 to take the early lead, 1-0.
Slowly but surely, the Orange and Blue offense showed signs of life in the second set. Setters Shanelle Puetz and Kalei Edson were able to find Dreves for four more kills. The sophomore would finish her evening with a team-high 11.
Havlicek’s fourth block of the match signified her 100th of the season. She became the second Tiger to hit the mark this year, behind fellow middle blocker Kate Mansfield.
Auburn came as close as 21-20 before the Aggies were able to piece together a quick 4-1 run to close out the set and extend their lead, 2-0.
Both Dreves and Markovska caught fire in the third frame. Behind solid passing in the back row, Puetz and Edson dished out five kills apiece to the Tigers’ six-row outsides.
The Orange and Blue hit a remarkable .371 against a tough Texas A&M defense.
It was the visitors, though, who had all the answers on their side of the net. The Aggies would hit a match-high .541 in the final frame to keep the Tigers at arm’s length to finish off the match, 3-0.
WHAT CROUCH HAD TO SAY
Head Coach, Brent Crouch
“It always hurts to lose. Texas A&M is a good team, obviously, 20-3, 12-1 in conference. Just got a win last week against Texas. They are playing at a really, really high level right now, and they continued that during the match. We need to figure out how to start matches just a little bit better against some of these better teams. We went from hitting to .000, to .176, to .371. So the offense started going as we stopped hitting the ball out of bounds. I think we were a little too jacked at the beginning of that match. We just have to learn how to trust ourselves that our good is good enough. And that we don’t need to do anything extra, where we might end up making some mistakes. I think maybe that happened in the first set, but it was really hard to slow them down. They have three really, really good passers. We had no aces. I don’t think that’s happened once this year. We hit some good serves at them. That’s a testament to they are a really good passing team. And when you pass well, and you’re along the net, you’re going to hit for a high efficiency, which is what they did. They hit for .392. We’ve got a couple days off now. That will be good to flush this out. We have a really good team that we’re playing on Wednesday in Texas. Welcome to SEC Volleyball. There’s really good teams here.”
Match Notes
- Lauren Dreves (11 kills) reached double digits for the 22nd time this season and the ninth match in a row
- Grace Havlicek reached 100 blocks this season
- Havlicek (4 blocks) has recorded at least four blocks in eight straight matches
- Greer Chambless notched a career-best .545 hitting percentage