With strong offensive performances from the front row, Auburn swept Missouri 3-0 on Saturday. This win marked Auburn's first win a series since 1996. Auburn is now 11-6 on the season.
Coming into this game, Auburn was second-to-last in the Southeastern Conference in hitting percentage during conference play, down at .170. Since much of the offense revolved around Rebekah Rath, teams had begun to key up their blocking on her, something that head coach Brent Crouch talked about after the game.
“Missouri was sending two blockers to Rebekah Rath on every single rotation," Crouch said. “Which they probably should.”
While Rath got 42% of the chances on the day, more kills were set up for opposite hitter Liz Reich, as well as middle blockers Elif Yavuz and Tatum Shipes, who combined for 21 attempts. Crouch said that the middle blockers are going to see much more opportunities on offense going forward.
“That’s the goal, it’s been a theme for at least a month in practice,” Crouch said. “Getting the middles to learn how to attack at the right tempo and being able to set them in good situations, and we did that today.
Defensively, Bella Rosenthall led the way with 19 digs, and Tatum Shipes added another great performance at the net, adding three blocks to her career total.
“Tatum and I joke a lot because she’s obviously leading in blocks, and that she’s sometimes taking my digs.” Rosenthall said. “I’m so proud of her, she’s at a whole new position and she’s absolutely crushing it.”
The blue-and-orange Tigers will face Mizzou again Sunday at 1 p.m.. Coach Crouch hopes that his team can give an encore performance.
“It’s just executing things we’re working on in practice," Crouch said. “The whole way we play is based on reading what’s happening out there, so as we get better at doing that, I just see more and more points being scored.”
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Dylan Fox, Junior in Civil Site Design Engineering, joined The Plainsman as a sports writer in Spring 2020. From Geneva, IL.
