AUBURN, AL (EETV) - After barely holding onto their spot in the top 25 of the AVCA Coaches Poll released earlier this week, Auburn Volleyball faced their second conference road test with their matchup against rival Alabama at Foster Stadium. This Wednesday night fight that went best-of-five handed the Tigers a 3-2 loss to the Tide.
Auburn entered the match in confidence after a road win at Mississippi State, but this Crimson Tide team proved their dominance early with a first set narrow victory of 25-23. Both teams traded lead changes in the set led by a total of 18 errors: nine attack errors, eight service errors, and one ball handling error. However, the Tide were able to capitalize off back-to-back kills from Sophie Agee that caused the Tiger team to sweat leading into their second set.
Things were looking up for the Tigers in sets two and three as they found their rhythm and got back to doing what they do best: finding a way to win. A second set sweep of 25-15 was exactly what this team needed to get back on track. Auburn's Bella Bell became a name to remember tonight as she was able to spark the Tiger offense and even collected a career-high 22 kills by the end of this match.
Set three opened on a high for the Tigers as Lauren Dreves served an ace and previewed a promising outcome for this set, as the orange and blue went on an exhilarating 5-0 scoring run while forcing timeouts from the Tide. In true rivalry fashion, the Tide responded with a scoring run of their own to create a race to 25. Only up by two, Bella Bell shut the set down with a kill to put Auburn up 25-22.
Defensively, Auburn needed to dominate in the fourth set if they wanted to continue their road trip with another win. Although another Tiger walked away with a career-high (Alexis Dacosta with 24 digs), Auburn could not dig out a fourth set win. In a devastating match-point attempt, the Tigers lost their opportunity to end the match after a scoring series of a kill and two Alabama aces. This run put the set final score to 26-24, marking a 2-2 tie going into the final set and the momentum shifted back toward Alabama.
With the hopes of staying in the top 25 on the line, this fifth set just meant more. Unfortunately, Auburn could never find the lead. Trailing to the Tide 6-11, the Tigers fought to bridge the gap. Bella Bell, Bel Zimmerman, and Madison Scheer all contributed thrilling kills to keep the Tigers in the game. In a nail-biting, back-to-back set of service errors from Alabama, Auburn was only down one point in this final set. The Tide's match point ended in their favor, with Natalie Repetti scoring on an ace to secure the set win 16-14 and tie the teams' season series 1-1.
In their final match before their return back to Neville Arena, Auburn Volleyball will take on Tennessee Sunday, Oct. 20 at Food City Center in Knoxville. That game will air at 1:00 CDT on SEC Network.
