The Auburn volleyball team headed into their Sunday match-up against the gamecocks of South Carolina looking to improve to 2-2 in SEC play.
South Carolina had different plans, however. The Gamecocks beat the Tigers by a score of 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 15-10).
Auburn's freshman setter, Alexa Filley, ended the game with 63 assists and an average of 12.6 assists per set. That's well above her season average of 9.8 assists per set.
After the match, Filley said that one of the biggest issues the tigers faced was a lack of enthusiasm.
"When we play with energy, we just play so much better and we play like much more of a team and everything just clicks," Filley said.
Sophomore Emily Klitzke, who ended the game with 18 kills, spoke about their lack of energy as well.
"Beginning to end, we were not playing to our full potential at all," Klitzke said, "Our energy was really lacking and I think that was what became the losing factor for us."
The low level of energy didn't go unnoticed by head coach Rick Nold either.
"We talked about it almost every timeout," Nold said, "I thought we were pretty sluggish in chasing the ball instead of being prepared for what they were doing."
Although his team lost, Nold did have a few words of encouragement.
"We went down two there but I thought it showed a lot of character to fight back and send it to five," Nold said.
The Tigers committed 16 service errors which was more than twice their per game average. Heading into the match, the team averaged 7.75 service errors a game. When compared to the four service errors from the Gamecocks, there were 12 free points given away on serves alone.
Auburn sits at 9-8 on the season and 1-3 in SEC play, and the next game takes place on October 10th against the Missouri tigers.
Auburn will be looking to get their first win on the road of the season before heading to Lexington to take on the Kentucky Wildcats.
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