Coming off its 10th season win in a 3-1 victory against Ole Miss (6-10) and marking its first victory against the Rebels since 2004, the women's volleyball team (11-5) defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks (8-9) Sunday at the Student Activities Center in a five-game match.
Arkansas held a series record of 28-3 against the Tigers going into the match.
However, the Tigers came out with the win after losing the first two sets 25-27 and 23-25 .
The team pulled out the next three sets 25-22, 25-23 and 16-14.
"I thought this was two young teams going at it, and we just happened to come out on top in this one," said head coach Wade Benson. "For us to be able to come back from 0-2, it's probably been a long time since that's happened for Auburn, especially against a quality team."
The Tigers turned things around after the second set making a switch to flip their line-up placing sophomore outside hitter Kelly Fidero on the left side and allowing junior outside hitters Jonelle Wallace and Morgan Johns to come through on the right side.
"Just that little change really helped us out," Benson said. "It helped us out on the left-side attack."
Fidero said she felt the switch worked well allowing her and freshman teammate Katherine Culwell to exchange from front row to back row.
"Katherine was going strong, and we work well together as a team," Fidero said. "It's just a comfort thing."
Benson said Culwell kept her head held high even when struggling during the match, and she came through to help them win.
Throughout the match, some controversial calls made from the officials cost Auburn some crucial points. However, the team did not let that phase them.
"It always gets you for a second," Fidero said. "There's bad calls both ways regardless, and it's just something you have to deal with as part of the game."
Benson said he tries to not overreact when bad calls are made in order to keep his team from being distracted.
"You want to fight for your team, but at the same time you can't let it distract your group," Benson said. "You know that's easier said than done sometimes, but that's the goal."
Junior defensive specialist Liz Crouch said the team's biggest strength was playing united.
"It wasn't one person," Crouch said. "We were all there to win. We were all there to help each other, and that's how we pulled it out."
Crouch also said the team didn't play with a strategy as much as it knew it had to take care of its side of the court and play more relaxed.
"That's what we did," Crouch said. "We came out. We played relaxed, and we came away with the win."
Auburn travels to Lexington, Ky., and Knoxville, Tenn., Friday and Sunday to take on the Kentucky Wildcats and Tennessee Volunteers of the SEC East.
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