After sweeping Missouri on Saturday, Auburn fell in five sets to the black-and-gold Tigers on Sunday, dropping to 3-5 in Southeastern Conference play, and giving Mizzou its first conference win of 2021.
While the defense was dominant on Saturday, it struggled in the first set in the second matchup, notching only two solo blocks for the match. In the first set, Mizzou’s Anna Dixon went five-for-five on kills, and as a team, Mizzou had a .390 kill percentage. Middle blocker Tatum Shipes finished with six blocks on the night.
To add to the blocking issues, sophomore setter Jackie Barrett left the match after the first set, forcing freshman Jordan Sinness to take over. While Sinness finished with a solid 35 assists over four sets, the 4-inch height difference compared to Barrett proved troublesome for Auburn’s blocking, as Mizzou rolled to a .235 hit percentage on the day.
With a freshman setter on the floor, Auburn was forced to revolve more of its offense around outside hitters Rebekah Rath and Val Green. Those two failed to match the production from Saturday, combining for a .220 hit percentage.
Defensively, Bella Rosenthall set a career high in digs at 33, her third 30+ dig match. The senior libero is now up to 5.39 digs per set, which is double what she achieved last season. Green finished with 16 kills, her best in SEC play this season.
The Tigers will travel to Athens to face Georgia on Oct. 21. That match starts at 6 p.m. CDT.
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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.
