The football team was not the only Auburn team that suffered a loss last weekend.
Challenged on its own turf by two other tigers, the volleyball team came away from both fights without a victory.
The LSU Tigers ended a perfect streak of wins at home for Auburn Friday, Oct. 19. Then, Sunday, Oct. 21, the Missouri Tigers reaffirmed that the home winning streak was over.
Missouri, with a record of 15-6, (7-4), won Sunday's game 3-2 (25-14, 16-25, 21-25, 25-19, 13-15).
Friday's game against LSU, 9-12, (5-7), appeared to be more of a challenge for Auburn's Tigers with a final score of 3-1 (22-25, 30-32, 25-22, 20-25). Neither game was given away.
"We fought, and I like seeing that," said Head Coach Rick Nold. "I don't think we played our best by any means. We didn't, for the first half of the match; we really didn't pass the ball well. Once we did, we did a great job I thought. Pushed the ball in the middle -- I thought we had the advantage there."
"I mean it just comes down to a play here and then later at the end of the match. I was happy with how we fought back."
Though the numbers were what mattered, the stats for each game often weighed heavily in Auburn's favor, and against LSU, Auburn scored more points in total.
"We talked a lot about it," Nold said. "It's a process for us; if you do everything based on the result, you can win and play bad and not really get better that way.
"I think there's things that we definitely did; if we could have had our passing from Friday here tonight, then you know we got a good chance to win. And if we could have the energy we had today on Friday, we have a good chance to win.
"Again, you've got to put together a full match, and we've done a little 'adding new things here and there,' and it's just a matter of putting it all together."
The fans seemed to note this as well.
The atmosphere at Sunday's game against Missouri was inconsistent for the first few sets, but by the third, the game had commanded the attention of everyone in the stands.
Anticipation filled the crowd when Auburn appeared to have a chance of tying the game in the fourth set.
When they did, that anticipation turned into anxiety as overtime into the fifth set turned into a race to reach the 15-point mark. With both teams holding one another off and edging closer to 15, the outcome was anything but expected.
"You want every win," Nold said. "I mean, every game we need to get, and that's just a part of life. It doesn't change what we got to do this week. You know, I figure we got closer today in terms of what we saw on the floor."
Auburn will be traveling to play South Carolina Friday, Oct. 26, and Ole Miss Sunday, Oct. 28.
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