The Auburn volleyball team has fallen on hard times lately, and after a devastating loss to Arkansas last Sunday, isn't exactly thrilled to meet Mississippi State this weekend.
Auburn fell to Mississippi State earlier in the season.
"We have a lot of mental improvements we need to make," said coach Rick Nold. "The ways we look at things, how we handle little failures. In a good match, you lose almost half the points, so how you handle that, I think, is very important.
"That's something we've been spending a lot of time with and it's not something we're going to change within a week. We can make some improvements and maybe we'll see it happen in a good way in spurts, but that's something we're going to spend a lot of time with and not just this week, but again through the spring (and) through next year. We'll just keep working at changing our mindset."
The Tigers enter Sunday with a 10-16, 4-12 SEC tally, while the Bulldogs carry a 10-15, 5-11 SEC record. Mississippi State has fallen in its last seven games, five of which were lost by zero.
Auburn will forgo a Friday match this week, but will utilize the time off as an opportunity to regroup and recharge.
"It's a long week," Nold said. "We'll probably get an extra day off this week which is probably good at this time of year. We're a little beat up and a little thin in the middle with some injuries, so I think that day off will help us."
As for Auburn's loss against Mississippi State last month, Nold is confident they'll enter the meet with a better knowledge of the Bulldogs' game strategy.
"It was defense in my mind," Nold said. "I thought they stepped up and played some good defense and we didn't make the little adjustments that I think we could have made. Hopefully the second time through we'll get a little bit better feel for them."
Although Mississippi State has suffered in performance lately, Nold knows better than to expect an easy win.
"Mississippi State, they're kind of on a little bit of a tough stretch right now, but earlier in the season they were on a roll," Nold said. "They again had a very strong season, it's just a matter of for us, we're going to need to probably worry a little more about ourselves and how we're going to play. We've got a game plan set. We've watched film already (and) we know what they're going to do. It's just a matter of figuring out what we're going to do."
Auburn hosts Mississippi State Sunday for a 1 p.m. match at the Student Activities Center. It will be televised regionally by SportSouth.
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