Auburn attack shines in dominant win over Ole Miss

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn volleyball opened its six-match home stand with a statement 3-0 win over Ole Miss. The Tigers (12-8, 2-6 SEC) hit .361 against the Rebels (8-11, 2-6 SEC), the best mark of the SEC season for Auburn. Neville Arena was treated to a pair of dominant opening sets with Auburn leading by double digits at one point in both sets before taking each frame 25-16. The Tigers eased to a comfortable but competitive third-set victory, 25-22, to get back into the win column and carry momentum into the back half of the weekend against LSU.

The Tigers immediately created separation, winning four straight points with a pair of kills from Belle Patrick, taking a 4-1 lead, then expanding that lead to 10-5 on a Grace Havlicek ace. Auburn carried a seven-point lead into the media timeout and forced Ole Miss to call a timeout after growing the lead to 10 at 19-9. The Tigers won back-to-back points off Rebel errors to win the set, 25-16. The Tigers were errorless in the opening set, hitting .375 with 15 kills and no errors on 40 attempts. Patrick led the charge with four kills and five digs in the set.

Ole Miss appeared to respond to the disappointing first set with a 4-0 lead, but was quickly silenced by a 10-point Auburn run with kills from Patrick, Anastasija Ivkovic, and Lauren Dreves, plus a pair of blocks by Havlicek. The Tigers continued to dominate the early portion of the set, taking a 15-6 lead into the media timeout, then forcing an Ole Miss timeout at 20-7. The Rebels turned things around out of the timeout, but could not get near a comeback due to the large deficit they fell into early in the set. Ole Miss pulled within eight points before a service error clinched the set for Auburn, again at 25-16. Dreves was two-for-two with five digs and a block in the second set. Kate Mansfield was also two-for-two on the attack. Patrick led Auburn again with six kills.

The third frame was the most competitive of the three, as neither team led by more than two for the first 22 points of the set. However, a six-point run for the Tigers broke open a five-point lead into the media timeout for Auburn. Ole Miss returned, chipping away at Auburn's lead to within a point at 18-17, but a solo block by Ivkovic shutdown the Ole Miss momentum, forcing the Rebels into a timeout at 20-17. Auburn held onto its multi-point lead for the remainder of the set, capping the set on Patrick's 15th kill of the match, closing her most efficient attacking performance of SEC play at .333. Patrick has her second errorless set of the match with five kills on 13 attempts, plus two blocks in the third set. Havlicek had three kills on four attempts in the third set with two blocks.

• "That was one of our most complete performances of the entire season, definitely the most complete since the start of conference play. It's really good to see both Kate [Mansfield] and Moore playing to the ability we know they're capable of, especially with them both in spots they haven't got much time in this season.
   
  It's also great to see that the offense can be as efficient and effective as it was tonight even with Lauren [Dreves] not to full ability, so we're able to spread the ball and do not need to push as much as we have in the past."