In recent years, the Auburn Volleyball team has struggled during the regular season, but this off-season the team is working hard to change that.
This past weekend, the team traveled to Atlanta for the to Atlanta Collegiate Invitational tournament.
The Tigers took on Clemson University, Georgia Tech University, College of Charleston and the University of Georgia.
The team began the tournament on Easter with impressive wins against Clemson, Georgia Tech and Charleston.
Defeating the three teams moved Auburn to the final match vs. SEC rival UGA where the Tigers were unfortunately defeated by the Bulldogs in a close and hard fought match.
Coming off a 16-15 record in 2009, coach Wade Benson said he has seen great progress since the start of the team's spring season.
The team's advancement to the final round of the tournament was a good display of their efforts.
Benson was proud of the team for its ability to stay calm and finish strong.
"When you're down a couple games and you're able to not panic, that's a tough thing," Benson said. "We did a great job (of not panicking) and were able to pick up our game and come out on top."
Sophomore Kelly Fidero was proud of her team for making it so far in the tournament and is excited for the team's upcoming season.
She said her focus is to help bring success to the program.
"We did a lot of good things," Fidero said. "Our blocking was really good and we worked really hard."
Benson said the team jumped a mental hurdle and impressed him with its effort and dedicated work ethic.
Like Fidero, red-shirt freshman Sarah Wroblickly had a big weekend at the net. Wroblicky has made an immediate impact on the team, and Benson is a big believer in her.
"Sarah did extremely well for being a redshirt freshman she had a lot of big plays," Benson said.
Wroblicky, the defensive specialist, thought the defense did well and said the team blocked extremely well.
"I thought we played pretty solid the whole tournament," Wroblickly said. "At the end it just came down to fighting for it and I feel like we backed off a little, but overall I think we played really well."
Although the team was not as successful as it wanted to be in the regular season, Fidero is confident that everyone on the team is determined and focused to improve for this coming season.
"I want to help build this program and get it where it needs to be," Fidero said. "We're capable of winning and our focus is to give our team the success it deserves."
Fidero said the team is working hard on and off the court to get the recognition she knows they are capable of.
The volleyball team has one more weekend of matches to keep its hot-streak going when it travels to Nashville to compete in its final tournament of the spring April 10.
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