The Auburn volleyball team lost both Friday and Saturday, falling to No. 13 Minnesota, 3-0, and No. 12 Iowa State, 3-0, at the Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis, Minn.
The Tigers played three games in the tournament, two of which were losses to Minnesota and Iowa State and one win against George Washington.
The Gophers started strong offensively as their sideout game took charge of the match.
With tough Minnesota serves, the Tigers had difficulty running its offense, forcing setter Sara Shanks to turn her sets into pins, allowing the Gophers to put a double block each time.
After a short Auburn run to cut the lead, the Tigers struggled offensively in the first set, hitting .000 with eight kills and eight hitting errors.
In the second set, they already had several kills and trailed by just one, 5-4.
"It can be a good growing experience for a young team like ours to play against a Top 25 team," said Head Coach Wade Benson. "Now they see what kind of a team we want to become, and we clearly know where we need to get better."
Junior Morgan Johns led the Tiger attackers with six kills. Freshman Sarah Bullock had five.
Junior Liz Crouch finished with 14 digs.
In the second game, the Tigers battled hard, but fell to Iowa State (25-14, 25-18, 25-13) in the first of two games on day two of the Diet Coke Classic.
Leading the way for the Tigers was sophomore Kelly Fidero with nine kills, while freshmen Sarah Bullock and Katherine Culwell finished with five kills each.
Bullock also tallied three service aces, and Culwell and junior Liz Crouch had six digs on the day.
Set one started with both teams going back and forth as the Tigers went up 4-2.
The Cyclones would eventually go on a 5-0 run, leading 10-8 and taking the first set 25-14.
The second set was similar with both teams exchanging points back and forth, but Iowa State would go on to close out the set with a 7-2 run, winning 25-18.
The Cyclones jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but a kill from Fidero and a service ace from Bullock cut the lead in half, 4-2. Iowa State, however, put together a pair of big runs and finished the match with a 25-13 win.
After two losses, the Tigers regrouped and defeated George Washington, 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22) in the final match of the Diet Coke Classic.
The two teams kept it close throughout the beginning of the first set and at the 6-6 mark, two-straight kills from Sarah Bullock gave the Tigers a two-point advantage.
The Colonials came back with a 4-1 run to take its first lead of the set, 10-9.
With George Washington up 18-16, Auburn put together a 9-4 run to take the 25-22 win.
"We knew it was going to be a growing experience for our team and our youth saw what true execution looks like," Benson said. "I'm happy and proud how our team rebounded and defeated a tough team like George Washington. This tournament gave us something to build on and look forward to in the future."
With set two being similar to the third, the Colonials jumped out to a 4-0 run in the third.
Kills from Morgan Johns and Alyssa Davis brought Auburn within two, but George Washington held onto the lead for a set three win.
The Colonials gave Auburn its largest lead at 12-4 with a pair of kills from Davis.
Although George Washington came back to tie the score at 14, Auburn pushed a 7-1 run to take the lead and eventually win the game.
The Tigers ended the tournament with a 5-2 overall record and hosted Jacksonville State Tuesday.
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