Auburn took down the No. 15 Florida State Seminoles 3-1 with the help of some impressive play from Madison Scheer and Lauren Dreves at home to stay unbeaten.
The Tigers dropped the first set by a score of 25-22, but would follow by taking sets two, three and four from the Seminoles by scores of 25-18, 25- 20 and 25-20 again. Auburn's 3-1 victory is its first this season against a ranked squad and moves the Tigers to 6-0 on the season.
Florida State owned the first set most of the way, getting out to an early lead of 10-6, but Auburn fought back mid-way through the set, pulling to a 19-17 lead. The Tigers' lead would not last long as Audrey Koenig helped the Seminoles take the lead back, answering the Tigers surge with a couple kills of her own to help take the lead then later pad it as the Seminole defense locked down a first set victory.
“Something we kind of fixed after the first set was, we just wanted to be more physical out there defensively,” Scheer said regarding dropping the first set. “We wanted to come out bigger and better. And I think that’s definitely what we did…We just showed up and our defense showed up and it was awesome.”
The Tigers promptly turned things around as they came out with a newfound energy for the second set. After a short period of back-and-forth scoring, Auburn’s Bella Bell had a moment-shifting block to tie the set, and after that, it was all Auburn. The Tigers took the lead and did not lose it for the rest of the match. The back end of the set was capped off by Scheer dominating at the net and an exclamation point kill coming from Chelsey McCurdy.
Set three opened with the two teams knotted early on, but the Seminoles fell behind 11-10 and did not regain a lead. Bel Zimmerman led the way with back-to-back kills along with help from from Alexis Dacosta and Lauren Dreves on the defense, evident for Auburn as Florida State's hitting percentage in the third set sat at just .054 as opposed to the Tigers .209 percentage.
For the last set, the two sides took turns trading blows as they were tied a total of five times before either team reached 10 points. Auburn found a 19-15 lead that was matched by a surge from the Seminoles to get back within one. After a timeout, the Tigers came back firing on all cylinders and a kill and block coming from Scheer moved the score to 24-20. Auburn closed the match out on the next point with a finish coming from Emma Moore to shut down Florida State in front of a loud Neville Arena crowd.
“It’s definitely good to get a statement win like this early in the pre-season for sure," said Auburn head coach Brent Crouch.
Auburn will face another ranked opponent, taking on No. 18 Minnesota Friday, Sept. 13 on the road. First serve is set for 6:00 p.m. CST and can be streamed on BigTen+.
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Reid is a freshman, exploratory major. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @ReidFarris2
