AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) – This Sunday, Auburn Volleyball welcomed LSU to Neville Arena for a SEC matchup of Tigers. The Tigers of Auburn proved to be too much for the Bayou Bengals of LSU, however, and Auburn won in convincing fashion in straight sets.
The first set was close early, with both teams taking advantage of early errors by the other side. However, Auburn began to clean up their errors, and the Tigers of the Plains pulled away. Auburn had two 5-0 scoring runs split by a singular LSU point that increased the Auburn lead from 6-4 to 16-5. From that point, both teams alternated scoring fairly evenly until Auburn secured the set win 25-12.
The second set played out similarly. Auburn used four scoring runs of three points or more to continuously keep LSU at arm’s length, dominating the Bayou Bengals over the course of the set and winning it 25-14. Only half of LSU’s second set points came on kills, as they relied heavily on Auburn attacking errors to get on the board.
The third set, however, was highly competitive. Each team refused to let the other get out of reach, going back and forth with each other until the set was tied at 16. At this point, Auburn finally broke away, going on a 6-1 scoring run to jump out to a 22-17 lead. Despite this, LSU refused to give up, clawing back into the game until they trailed by just one point with the score at 24-23 Auburn.
Not wanting his team to lose the set altogether, Auburn coach Brent Crouch called a timeout, which proved to be a good decision as Akasha Anderson fired home a kill on the next point to secure both the set win and the match win for Auburn.
Anderson led Auburn with 14 kills on the day, and was closely followed by Madison Scheer who recorded 10 kills of her own. The duo’s 14 kills was just three fewer than LSU’s team total of 27 kills in the match, as the Bayou Bengals really struggled to get their offensive attack going for most of the day; a point emphasized by LSU’s 23 attack errors in the match.
The win came at a very good time for Auburn, as the Tigers were stuck in the midst of a three-game losing streak after disappointing results vs Kentucky, Missouri, and Mississippi State. Auburn now sits at 19-8 on the season and 9-7 in SEC play and will look to build momentum as they enter the final two games of their season: two home matchups in Neville Arena vs Alabama on Nov. 22 and then Arkansas on Nov. 24 to close out the regular season.
