Auburn Women's Volleyball (14-12, 6-9 SEC) fell to the No. 9 Florida Gators (20-3, 14-2 SEC) Sunday in three sets, 25-15, 25-18 and 25-14, in Gainesville.
The big players of the day were sophomore outside hitter Kelly Fidero and freshman outside hitter Sarah Bullock.
Fidero recorded nine kills and two service aces during the match while Bullock had eight kills and eight digs.
"I think one of the team's biggest strengths against Florida was our serving," Bullock said. "We served tough, and because of that, we took Florida out of system a lot, which resulted in them rolling the ball into the middle of the court, instead of big swings like they usually do."
Fidero said the team's biggest challenge was believing it could beat a tough team such as Florida and keeping its confidence level high.
"We had a six-point lead on them in the second set, and it turned into a mind-over-matter situation because it was Florida," Fidero said. "We just needed to play our game."
Other key players for the Tigers were junior setter Sara Shanks with 16 assists and junior libero Liz Crouch.
Crouch said the team's game plan going into the match was to serve tough to take the Gators off of their offense.
"We didn't have everyone playing to their fullest potential at the same time," Crouch said. "There were only a couple of people in the game, and that makes it very hard."
The Gators offense was led by sophomore outsider hitters Colleen Ward and Kristy Jaeckel.
Ward recorded 12 kills while Jaeckel finished with 10. Elyse Cusack, senior libero, had a match-high 14 digs.
Auburn got a quick 4-2 lead by starting the first set with a set of kills from junior middle blocker Lauren Mellor and freshman outside hitter Katherine Culwell.
However, the Gators caught back up by making a couple of runs to lead the Tigers 15-9.
The Tigers started the second set with another 4-1 lead and then pushed forward to a 7-2 lead off of a kill from Mellor and a pair of aces from Fidero.
The two teams went point-for-point until a final six-point rally from Florida, which ended the set 25-18.
The final set began with a 7-4 lead from the Gators.
The Gators continued to push against the Tigers taking a six-point lead at 12-6.
Florida won the final set 25-13.
"The coaches are going to keep it tough during practice," Fidero said.
Bullock said she thinks the team needs to improve on closing matches, serve-receive passing and keeping a lead.
"I am almost positive we will work on these skills in the upcoming weeks," Bullock said. "I have full confidence that we can improve on these skills and our overall game, enabling us to finish the season strong."
Fidero said they want to finish the season the way they started it.
"We want a strong finish and end with a win," Fidero said
The Tigers will continue their season with matches against Tennessee and Kentucky this weekend.
They will play the University of Tennessee Friday at 4 p.m. and No. 11 University of Kentucky Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
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