The Auburn Volleyball team was defeated by South Carolina in a 3-0 match at the Gamecock's home court.
"It is a disappointing loss for us and it's hard to win when only a couple of people are playing up to par," said head coach Wade Benson. "Not having everyone in the game really hurt us and this loss is going to hurt for a while."
Auburn went into the match with a season record of 14-10 and 6-8 against other teams in the SEC. South Carolina was 12-11 on the season and 3-8 in conference match-ups.
This was the second meeting between Auburn and South Carolina. In their first meeting Oct. 18 at Auburn, the Tigers came away victorious over the Gamecocks, 3-1.
In their second meeting Friday in Columbia, S.C., Auburn fell 25-22 in the first set of play against the Gamecocks.
The first set started out neck and neck with the two SEC teams tied at 5-5. South Carolina jumped ahead with a two-point run that put them ahead 7-5.
Auburn was down 11-9 when it rallied from behind with a four-point run for its first lead of the night of 13-11.
The Tigers then had two different four-point runs to put them ahead of 19-14. Auburn couldn't hold on to the lead when South Carolina fought back with an 11-3 scoring run finishing the set up with a final of 25-22.
"We definitely didn't have our best match against South Carolina for sure," said freshman libero Sarah Bullock. "It seemed like nothing was flowing right on the court. Our communication was off and there was lack of effort plays in the first game."
Auburn came up short to the Gamecocks once again in the second set with a score of 25-23.
South Carolina jumped ahead of the Tigers 10-6 early in the second set. Auburn quickly battled back with six of the next seven points to take a 12-11 lead, including an ace from junior outside hitter Morgan Johns during the run.
The teams exchanged points and were tied up at 16-16 when the Gamecocks made a three-point scoring run to go ahead of the Tigers 19-16.
Auburn responded to South Carolina's run with a four-point string to push ahead, 20-19. Scoring went back and forth between the two teams until the end of the set when the Gamecocks came 25-23 victory over Auburn.
"The second game was a little better," Bullock said. "We continued to have many mistakes, but there was a definite increase in effort plays."
Set three started out with an early Gamecock lead of 8-4, getting five points straight on one scoring run.
South Carolina continued to push the lead and was ahead 11-6 when Auburn outside hitter Jonelle Wallace had a pair of hits to bring the Tigers within two points of the Gamecocks at 12-10. Freshman outside hitter Katherine Culwell added a hit for the Tigers and put the score at a close 15-14 before the Gamecocks rallied to a lead of 20-16.
South Carolina went on to win the set 25-21.
"I think we played well in the third game, but not well enough to win it," Bullock said about the final set of the match. "It was a tough loss that we learned a lot from."
Junior libero Liz Crouch had a match-high 19 digs and freshman Bullock had 12 digs for Auburn.
Wallace had nine kills against South Carolina, a season best for the junior from Dallas. Johns finished the night with eight kills in the match.
"I think that we could have performed better against South Carolina, but no game is played without learning lessons," Wallace said. "It definitely taught us about what level of performance we need to consistently be performing at to stay competitive in the SEC and if we don't show up, other teams will take advantage of any weakness."
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