JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.— It was an unbeaten opening weekend for Auburn volleyball as the Tigers finished off the Buccaneer Classic with a 3-0 (25-16, 28-26, 25-15) win over Akron Saturday.
For the second straight match, Belle Patrick led the Auburn attack with 14 kills and a .314 hitting percentage; she also picked up her first Auburn double-double with 11 digs. Lauren Dreves added 12 kills along with three blocks.
Auburn’s block was once again a strong suit with nine on the day. Kate Mansfield was part of five of those blocks, and she also added three kills. Dreves, Grace Havlicek and Greer Chambless each contributed on three blocks.
Setter Carson Eickenloff finished off a strong opening weekend as a Tiger with 37 assists; for the weekend she averaged 11.9 assists and 1.5 digs/set.
Two Tiger freshmen had a strong defensive showing as well as Emily Keiran and Symone Sims finished the day with 10 digs apiece. Keiran led the Tigers on the weekend with 4.2 digs/set.
As a team, the Tigers hit .243 for the match and held Akron to .107, the second time in three matches on opening weekend to hold the opponent under .200.
Auburn scored the first point of the match and never trailed in the first set. A kill by Chambless got the lead to 15-10 at the technical timeout, and a 4-1 run from there – bookended by a pair of Patrick kills – made it 19-11 and forced an Akron timeout. From there, kills from Patrick, Havlicek and Dreves, along with a Dreves solo block, put the set out of reach and a 28-26 win.
Set two saw Akron start fast as the Zips jumped out to a 5-1 lead. The Tigers wouldn’t panic, though, pulling ahead at 8-7 on a Keiran ace. Akron continued to push, moving back ahead by as many as four at 14-10. Auburn fought back to tie it on multiple occasions, but never led again unti 24-23 after an Akron error. The Zips fought off three Auburn chances at set point, but the Tigers got another Akron error to finish off a 28-26 second-set win.
After another quick start for Akron in the third, Auburn pulled back ahead at 5-4 and never trailed again. Dreves and Patrick had four kills apiece in the third and the Tigers held Akron to an .077 hitting percentage in the final set. The Tigers got four points in a row on Dreves’ term of service – including two aces - to move ahead 12-6, and Akron would get no closer than three points the rest of the way. A kill by Mansfield finished it off at 25-15.
Auburn (3-0) will face their toughest tests of the non-conference season next week when the Tigers travel to Madison, Wisconsin, for the Allstate Big Ten/SEC Challenge Week. While in Madison, they’ll take on No. 14 Minnesota on Wednesday and No. 6 Wisconsin on Thursday.
HEAD COACH BRENT CROUCH
“I’m proud of the way we got better each match this weekend. We did a better job of fighting through adversity in the second set today. Overall, it was a solid start for us, but we know we’ve got work to do with the challenges ahead.”
MATCH NOTES
-Auburn starts the season 3-0 for the fifth time in the last six years.
-Belle Patrick had her first Auburn double-double with 14 kills and 11 digs.
-Lauren Dreves led the Tigers on the weekend with 48 kills and tied for second on the team with 27 digs.
-Dreves is two blocks away from 100 in her career.
-As a team, Auburn hit .285 for the weekend and held their three opponents to .149.