Auburn goes 1-1 on day two of Active Ankle Challenge
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (auburntigers.com) – The Auburn volleyball team finished the final day of the Active Ankle Challenge with a 1-1 record, falling to Santa Clara in the early afternoon and upsetting No. 21 Louisville Saturday night in the KFC Yum! Center.
Sophomore Brenna McIlroy and junior Alexa Filley were placed on the All-Tournament team, while Auburn came away from the weekend with a 3-4 overall record on the season. Santa Clara captured the tournament title with a perfect record over the two-day invite with Jensen Cunningham being named the weekend’s MVP.
Santa Clara 3, Auburn 1
The Tigers fell to a tough Santa Clara team, 3-1 (29-31, 25-16, 25-23, 25-19), Saturday afternoon in the KFC Yum! Center.
A trio of Tigers finished with double-doubles on the day. Junior libero Jesse Earl set a season-high with 28 digs and a career-high with 14 assists. Junior setter Alexa Filley had 32 assists and a season-best 15 digs, while sophomore Brenna McIlroy totaled 12 kills and 13 digs.
Senior Emily Klitzke led the Tigers with 14 kills and freshman Gwyn Jones added 10. The Auburn blockers had a season-best 11 stuffs with senior Breanna Barksdale leading the way with seven.
Nikki Hess had a match-high 18 kills and added 13 digs for Santa Clara (5-0). Jensen Cunningham chipped in 15 kills and Sabrina Clayton totaled 13 with 14 digs. Libero Taylor Laugero had a match-high 32 digs and setter Kirsten Mead had 48 assists.
Auburn 3, No. 21 Louisville 2
Auburn went into intermission trailing No. 21 Louisville, 0-2, and came out of it swinging, using tough serves and solid defense to pull off a 3-2 (15-25, 17-25, 25-14, 25-22, 15-8) comeback victory over the Cardinals Saturday night.
“Louisville is a really good team and were very efficient the first two sets,” head coach Rick Nold said. “We came out with a new mentality in set three and started really fighting for points. When you do that, things start working out in your favor and that’s what happened to us tonight.”
The Tiger servers took care of business beginning in the third set, putting the Cardinals (4-2) out of system on a consistence basis and allowing the Auburn offense to capitalize on free balls.
McIlroy led the Auburn offense with a season-high 18 kills, while Filley finished with another double-double of 48 assists and 19 digs. Klitzke added 13 kills and Jones had 11 with two blocks.
Defensively, Earl put together a 16-dig performance, while sophomore Abigail Miller had a career-best 10 digs. Junior Tate Pember added six digs and a team-best two service aces.
The Cardinals (4-2) were led by Melanie McHenry with 14 kills and 16 digs. Tess Clark and Janelle Jenkins added 12 kills apiece and libero Molly Sauer had a match-high 20 digs.
The Tigers return to Auburn Arena, Sept. 9-10, and host the Auburn Invitational. The team opens with a pair of matches vs. Memphis and Miami (OH) Friday and close out the weekend with a 1:30 p.m. match vs. Jacksonville.
