Entering Auburn volleyball’s seventh straight week ranked in the top 25, the Tigers (14-5, 4-4 SEC) hosted the unranked Missouri Tigers (13-7, 5-4 SEC). Missouri came away with the victory after sweeping Auburn (25-23, 25-21, 25-18), Auburn's first time getting swept at home this season.
Coming off a loss to No. 12 Tennessee last week, Auburn struggled in the first set, losing a close affair 25-23. Auburn's four service errors in the first set played a role in the outcome.
According to head coach Brent Crouch, injuries to players such as Akasha Anderson’s ripped ligament in her hand, as well as Sarah Morton’s shoulder injury could have hurt the team’s serving.
“You gotta be aggressive serving, you’re gonna have some errors when you’re aggressive,” Crouch said. “You gotta get healthy.”
The second set was back and forth early on, as Auburn came out to an early 8-7 lead. Akasha Anderson and Madison Scheer’s eight combined kills in set two had Auburn rally to an 18-13 lead. However, Missouri came back with the help of Morgan Isenberg’s five kills, ending the set on a 3-0 run and taking the set, 25-21.
Auburn could not adjust in the third set where it lost by the highest margin of the match, 25-18. Missouri had two aces and 14 kills, compared to Auburn’s zero aces and eight kills, helping Missouri take the win. The overall discrepancies in kills and aces made Auburn's chance of winning slim, according to Crouch.
“They had six aces, we had two, those are not things that are gonna help,” Crouch said.
Anderson and Scheer each had 10 kills in the match and Jackie Barrett had 27 assists. Morton had 11 digs and Kyla Swanson had seven blocks.
Missouri had a higher hit percentage at .216, as opposed to Auburn’s .168. Missouri played aggressively, having 16 more attacks than Auburn at 111, and tallying 43 kills to Auburn’s 33.
“I was disappointed, I didn’t think we played with a lot of energy,” Crouch said. We don’t want to make excuses we need to be better than that.”
Auburn will look to bounce back from this conference loss. Now 4-4 in SEC play, the Tigers host another conference opponent, the 8-9 South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, Oct. 22. The match begins at 1 p.m. CST and will be streamed on SEC Network+.
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Tyler Cox is a sophomore from Atlanta majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in fall 2023.
