Auburn volleyball continued its losing streak on Wednesday with a loss to Tennessee in three straight sets.
Auburn fell by scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 25-19, respectively. The Tigers were slow on offense and put up one of their fewest kill totals this season with a combined 25 kills in three sets.
However, Auburn was able to keep mistakes to a minimum with 11 errors for its lowest total of the season.
Tatum Shipes led in kills for Auburn with eight total. Shipes had three kills in set one and an ace in set three, and both times the Tigers were able to gain a little momentum off the plays by Shipes.
Coach Brent Crouch said those burst of momentum came from the timeouts.
“There was very little technical feedback or strategy in timeouts,” Crouch said. “It was much more just challenging them to demand more of themselves out there on the court. When we went on runs, I thought it was there, but there just wasn’t enough of it.”
In set one, Auburn trailed the Volunteers by five but then went on a four-point run to close the gap after a timeout. Tennessee took a timeout after committing multiple errors. The rest of the set was a back-and-forth battle of points until Tennessee took the lead and the set 25-20 over Auburn.
The offense was the name of the game in set two, and both sides started with a run of kills where neither team committed errors. The Volunteers were able to take an early lead of five and just continued to push that lead throughout the match.
Despite Auburn’s attempts, the defense wasn’t able to counter the Tennessee attack and the Volunteers took the second set 25-17.
“I thought generally there were plays to be had, and we didn’t make them,” Crouch said. “You know, balls being hit to people, and we’re not digging them. There were not a lot of clean kills tonight where we hit the ball, and it hit the floor. There was a lot of hitting at people and just kind of not making the play. You have to make plays to win games.”
The Tigers started their final set off with their largest lead of the night with a three-point lead. This lead was short-lived because the Volunteers made a 6-point run to take the lead.
Auburn attacked too close the gap and succeeded on a few attempts, but ultimately fell short and lost the set 25-19.
“I just think we have not figured out how to do it for long stretches. There’s a period where we play well for seven or eight points, and then we’ll have seven or eight in a row that are not so good,” Crouch said. “Just getting stamina for what it takes, it’s really hard to win. It requires a great deal of effort and a great deal of stamina.”
The Tigers have struggled throughout the season but have seen improvements in various areas and will continue to improve heading into the season’s final game.
“We’re working on building [stamina],” Crouch said. “You build stamina the same way you build it if you’re running for marathons. You run a little bit longer each day until you can just do it. We get another chance to do it tomorrow night, and hopefully, we’ll grow a little bit from the night, and we’ll have a little bit more stamina because I think we can play with this team. I think we can beat this team, frankly.”
Auburn will have its last game of the season against Tennessee on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. CST and will air on SEC Network+.
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Mattison Allen is a senior from Springville, Ala. She's majoring in public relations communications with the goal of becoming a sports information director one day.
