Auburn volleyball loses its third straight game, losing to LSU 3-1

AUBURN, AL. (EETV) – Auburn volleyball fell to LSU at home at Neville Arena on Friday night.

The pink crowd recognized Auburn’s annual “Dig Pink” match, which supports breast cancer research. This event featured a “first serve” from an Auburn volleyball graduate and featured three members of the Auburn community battling breast cancer.

In the first set, Auburn scored the first two points, highlighted by a kill from Chelsey McCurdy. However, the Tigers quickly lost momentum. LSU scored two 4-0 goal streaks; The first run put them ahead 13-11 and the second gave them an even bigger lead of 20-13. After scoring runs and hitting four aces, LSU took the first set 25-17.

The second set began with an exciting back and forth. However, this quickly came to an end when LSU went on a 5-0 scoring streak and took the lead 16:11. Despite their comeback efforts, the Orange and Blue were unsuccessful and lost the second set 25-20. Overall, serving errors proved to be an alarming problem for Auburn, with six in this set alone.

At the start of the third set, the Auburn Tigers were determined to win. Auburn had a 6-0 lead early on, with Lauren Dreves scoring three of those points on kills. That momentum continued and Chelsey McCurdy scored back-to-back aces. The killings continued and Auburn’s front line recorded an impressive thirteen kills, with six different players contributing. Auburn was able to reverse the score from the previous set and win the set 25-20.

Hoping to take the game into the fifth set, Auburn once again tried to match LSU’s intensity. Head coach Brent Crouch did his best to determine the fate of this set, triggering a review that resulted in a reverse decision and credited an Auburn ace by Fallan Lanham that tied the game at 12. Just a few points later, Crouch again called for a review; However, this challenge resulted in an upheld decision, giving LSU the point and making the score 18-17 Auburn. An interesting pattern emerged when Coach Crouch again called for an official review for the third time that night, but it only confirmed a net violation by Lauren Dreves, maintaining LSU’s lead at 24-21. Match point was achieved by a kill from LSU, the fourth set ended 25-21, and the game went to LSU 3-1.

After losing three straight games, the Tigers will look for a win when they travel to South Carolina for a noon game on Oct. 27 at 1 p.m.