Though Auburn has struggled on the road this year, the volleyball team will have two more opportunities to earn its third away win this weekend.
"We've gone through a tough stretch, and we have to find a way for people to respond," said coach Rick Nold.
Friday, Auburn (10-17, 4-13 SEC) travels to South Carolina (12-15, 3-14 SEC) to face a team which has dropped six of its last eight matches--including two last weekend--and was swept by the Tigers 3-0 in early October.
The Tigers lost 3-0 Sunday against Mississippi State, racking up 26 errors compared with the Bulldogs' eight. Nold said it's something the team needs to work on in order to be successful.
"We've got drills set. We do them every day," Nold said. "We've changed them around different ways. We just have to find something different to spark the team."
Senior outside hitter Kelly Fidero is coming off an impressive game against Mississippi State, leading the Tigers with 14 kills. However, she's focused more on the coming matches than her previous performance.
"We need to work on our consistency," Fidero said. "We had a lot of errors (Sunday). We need to work on keeping the ball in play and the other team make the errors. We need to get control on that now before we go into next Friday."
Fidero attributed some of the Tigers' errors to their overly aggressive play against the Bulldogs.
"A couple of those could have made a difference," Fidero said. "We need to learn to control that and make smart decisions."
Nold is approaching the team's blunders with a positive attitude as he tries to work out the kinks this week.
"Right now we're trying some different things, but bottom line, I think they've learned it's time to step up and play," Nold said.
After the Tigers face South Carolina, they travel to Gainesville Sunday to face the No. 19 Florida Gators (21-5, 14-3 SEC).
The Gators swept the Tigers in Auburn earlier this season, and the players know Sunday's match will be a challenge.
"We've got to work on coming out and playing hard from the first point on and learn how to give everything we're capable of," Nold said. "Right now we're waiting to see what the other team is going to do."
Auburn's match against South Carolina is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m., and the competition against Florida will be Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
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