Thursday afternoon the Auburn Tigers fell short to the No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks in a five-set thriller in front of a record crowd of 2,711 fans in Neville Arena.
The Tigers came in hot to take the first set but fell short in the second only to come back and win the third. Arkansas, however, took the fourth, forcing a fifth to take home the victory (25-21, 25-16, 25-19, 25-21, 17-15).
Arkansas, being a top 10 opponent, used its vigorous serving and aggressive defense to get an edge on the home team.
“Obviously, it was a nice step forward against Arkansas,” said head coach Brent Crouch. “They’ve had our number the last three matches that we’ve played them. The last three matches, I don’t think we took a set off them. They’re a really high-level team, a lot of seniors and grad students. They’re ninth in the country for a reason.”
From the beginning of the match, the Tigers front row took over with senior Bella Bell and graduate Kyla Swanson building a wall that would remain throughout the match. Bell and Swanson combined for seven block assists just in the first frame.
While junior Fallan Lanham was the only Tiger with an ace in the set, Swanson, senior Jackie Barrett, sophomores Sarah Morton and Akasha Anderson all were crucial in setting up deep scoring runs and an 80% side-out mark.
Offensively, Barrett kept the effort rather even with Anderson and sophomore Madison Scheer with four kills each along with Bell who added three more of her own. Barrett’s third assist Friday afternoon marked the 3,000th of her career, making her the fifth player in program history to attain that position.
Barrett was not the only Tiger reaching new highs Friday as Bell ended the match with a total of 10 blocks to set a season high and tie her career best. Sophomore Kendal Kemp and Swanson followed close behind with nine and five, respectively.
Additionally, Anderson ended the day with a career high of 20 digs and clinched her eighth double-double with 13 kills.
In the second set, the Razorbacks responded with four kills from five different players to take the lead. The Tigers fought back with two blocks and two aces from Morton, but could not catch the visiting team, leaving the match 1-1.
After the Tigers took the lead in the third bringing the match to 2-1, the Razorbacks fought back in the fourth. Scheer, Anderson, and Swanson each had three kills, but it was not enough to keep up as the visiting team forced the fifth set.
The crowd was on the edge of their seat as the Tigers fought off two match points in the final set. In the end, Arkansas found an opening and took the 3-2 win to end the regular season.
“I’m real proud of our team. […] At the end of that match, the first thing I said to the coaches was ‘We closed that gap’ with them from where we were a year ago," Crouch said. "The one earlier in the year was a fluke a little bit. We didn’t have our starting lineup, but we clearly made up some ground and we are excited to head into the tournament now.”
Up next, Auburn will await its seeding in the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Nov. 26th. The selection show will begin 5 p.m. CT and will broadcast on ESPN.
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Alexa Gardner is a junior at Auburn, majoring in exercise science. From Birmingham, Alabama, she started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
Twitter: @alexagardner_
