Auburn volleyball’s turnaround under head coach Brent Crouch continued Saturday with a pair of victories over Jackson State and Jacksonville State. The Tigers finish non-conference play a perfect 11-0, the best start to a season in the program’s 37 year history.
The weekend double-header opened with a match against the Jackson State Tigers, where Auburn took command early on the back of a .400 hitting percentage by junior setter Jackie Barrett. Five kills by freshman Akasha Anderson closed out a 25-20 win in the first set for the orange-clad visitors.
Crouch’s team fell down by seven in the second set, prompting the head coach to call a time out. Auburn responded with an 8-1 run and a 26-24 win. A pair of 4-1 and 6-1 runs in the final frame, as well as the play of Chelsey Harmon (12 kills, .706 hitting percentage for the match) muscled the Tigers to a 25-16 set win and a sweep of the match.
Freshmen Madison Scheer and Bel Zimmerman led the way against Jacksonville State in the opening frame, combining for five kills each. The Tigers hit .450 and took the first set 25-19.
The Gamecocks fought hard in the second set, going point-for-point with Auburn until a pair of crucial blocks by duos of Kemp/Anderson and Zimmerman/Harmon sealed the deal on a 25-20 win for the 2-0 match lead. The following set saw a near reversal of the scoring, as despite Scheer and Zimmerman reaching double-digit kills the Tigers fell 25-19.
Despite another impressive set from Scheer, Auburn could not hold off the Jacksonville State attack in a 25-22 loss that brought the match to a head. The final battle between the two sides looked to be heading the Gamecocks’ way after a 3-0 run put them up 8-7, but Scheer poured on another four kills and Barrett produced a critical service ace to hand the Tigers a narrow 15-11 match victory.
Multiple Auburn players had impressive totals Saturday. Zimmerman set new career highs with 12 and 13 kills over both matches. Scheer cleared her benchmark for kills with 22 against Jacksonville State and Harmon’s .706 hitting percentage in her first outing was the third best single-match mark in program history.
Brent Crouch wasn’t shy with praise for his young team’s fortitude.
“These tournaments are hard when you play three matches in two days. We were up at 7 a.m. doing scouting and playing at 10. We didn’t play our best volleyball in the morning but when it counted, we stepped up. To break the record when the average age of your team is 18, that just bodes well for the future.”
Auburn begins conference play with a weekend road series against Alabama. Saturday’s match airs at 1 p.m. CST on SEC Network+. Sunday’s contest will air at 1 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
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