AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) - The top two teams in the Southeastern Conference will compete in the Auburn Arena tonight as Auburn (8-1) hosts Ole Miss (11-0).
"Ole Miss has done a nice job turning the program around in the last year," said head coach Brent Crouch. "They have a great coach, Kayla Banwarth, a former Olympic player. She's done some nice work with that group. They have some solid hitters in really all the spots. They are able to set the middle a lot, even from off the net which is a little bit unusual and present a fun challenge for us."
Wednesday night at 8 p.m. CT, the match will be televised on ESPNU with Same Gore and Jennifer Hoffman. It will also be available on WEGL 91.1 and on Auburn Sports Network.
OPENING STATS
- Jackie Barrett during the season has 1566 assists and 73 Digs. She has an active double-double streak of four matches.
- Bella Rosenthall for the second successive week earns SEC Defensive Player of the Week, becoming the first player in program history to win that award back-to-back weeks.
- Tatum Shipes leads the team in blocks and is ranked seventh nationally with a 1.66 blocks per set average.
- Since 2017 Auburn is hoping for their first win to open league action. That season the Lady Tigers won against Ole Miss in four sets.
- Even though Ole Miss leads the all-time series, 35-31, Auburn has the advantage with eight wins out of the 10 matches. The Lady Tigers have the advantage of 14-11 against the rebels in games played in Auburn.
- Bella Rosenthall leads the conference with a 5.59 digs/set average. In the last nine matches, she has had at least 10 digs.
- In the SEC the Tigers rank second and rank 17th nationally with a 2.78 blocks/set average. In Division I volleyball the Tigers rank second by holding other opponents to a .097 hitting percentage.
PREVIEWING THE REBELS
Ole Miss (11-0) is one of nine undefeated teams in the country. The Rebels' non-conference was shown by a top-15 win at Western Kentucky, the program's first since 2010.
In the SEC Ole Miss leads offensively with a .300 team hitting percentage. With 125 total kills, Anna Bair is the team leader with 3.57 per set. Samantha Schnitta and Sasha Ratliff on offense are key players that contribute over two kills per set for the Ole Miss Rebels.
Schnitta leads Ole miss with 10 total aces (0.29/set). Ole Miss has totaled 52 aces and rank eighth in aces/set.
Kylee McLaughlin leads the Rebels with a .300 hitting percentage. McLaughlin has 385 total assists and ranks fifth in the league with a 10.41 digs per set average.
On the defensive side, the Rebels lead with 105.0 total team blocks. Blocks per set average are 2.76 for the Rebels which is third overall in the league. Payton Brgouch and Sasha Ratliff are the team's top blockers with 46.0 and 41.0. Brgouch ranks second in the SEC with a 1.48 blocks per set average.
Leading the team in digs, Sam Burgio has 113 to average 3.32 per set. McLaughlin ranks second with 92 total digs, averaging 2.54 per set.
