This weekend the Auburn Volleyball Team faces Alabama (6-14, 4-6 SEC) and Mississippi State (5-16, 1-9 SEC) at home in the Student Activities Center.
The Auburn Tigers faced both teams earlier in the season, defeating Mississippi State Sept. 28, (25-21, 25-19 and 25-15) and losing to Alabama Sept. 30, (21-25, 20-25, 25-17 and 20-25).
Head coach Wade Benson said he is looking forward to the match against Alabama.
He said it will be a big match, but the team will be ready for it.
"I think we owe Alabama for the past couple of times we played at their place," Benson said. "It will be on Friday night, and it will definitely be worth coming to watch."
The team has several approaches when preparing for upcoming matches, Benson said.
"We always watch films and see where their strengths and weaknesses are and try to attack them and defend," Benson said.
He said the team will review scouting reports for both Alabama and Mississippi State to get a better idea of how the teams play.
As for the match against Mississippi State, Benson expects it to be a better match up than before.
"Mississippi State is a team that we handled earlier, but they were injured so I think they will be a better team than most people give them credit for," Benson said. "They're a team that's struggling a little bit, but no team in the SEC can be taken lightly."
Freshman outside hitter Sarah Bullock said she thinks Auburn will be prepared for the weekend.
"I expect their middles to come out swinging and their setter being really tricky, but that's nothing we haven't seen," Bullock said.
Bullock has proved to be a key player for the Tigers.
In the team's most recent match against South Carolina, Bullock finished with 10 kills and 10 digs.
"I definitely feel that Mississippi State will be a stronger offensive team than when we played them last time, mostly because their best hitter was out," said Alyssa Davis, junior middle blocker.
Although Davis expects Mississippi State to be improved, she thinks Auburn will prevail.
Both Bullock and Davis said they are confident about the upcoming matches and are not nervous.
"We have improved drastically since the last time we played them so we're going to come out and be a brand new team they haven't even seen before," Bullock said.
In order to pull out wins against both Alabama and Mississippi State, Benson said the team needs both of its outsides to be prepared and ready for Auburn to have a good chance of winning.
In last weekend's 3-0 loss to No. 9 Florida (14-3, 8-2 SEC) and 3-1 win over South Carolina (11-8, 3-7 SEC), statistics showed the outside hitters played a huge role in the team's success.
Benson said it will be worth fans coming out and seeing the Tigers take on the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs this weekend.
Auburn plays Alabama Friday at 6 p.m. and Mississippi State Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
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