slot canyon

Pretty much dominated the match (3sets) with set margins of victory of 13, 11 and 2 points. Of course the domination also revealed by the stats: kills 41-27, blocks 12.5 -7, errors 10-23. Credit to LSU for not folding and making good effort to fight to the end in the final set. In that final set, Anderson had 8 kills of her total 14. Next up Alabama who have not won a conference match this year and would love to do so this Wednesday in Auburn. They appear to be improving but have won only 5 sets in 16 conference matches to date. Then on Friday our final conference match vs the excellent Arkansas razorbacks. Watched a portion of their game yesterday vs Florida; both very good teams. Arkansas won in 5 sets. I believe their speed and quickness is one thing that separates them from Auburn and a lot of other opponents. Gillen, #10 , their outside hitter is outstanding. Listed at 5'7", she leads the team in kills with 370. They steamrolled us earlier this season in 3 sets.

We seemed to serve better but our blocking was not up to par. We were not able to block into the court and many blocks went out of bounds. Usually a strong point for us but not this time. Many times in the last couple of matches, we seem to be out of position defensively and the opponent is able to place the ball in a vacant spot. I admit that I very little about the game but enjoy watching a good match.

Unfortunate they had to witness a beat down of epic proportions. We got P'ed on; Kentucky was Polished, Precise and Poised. Two closest sets lost by 11 point margins. Total points for the 3 sets: Kentucky 75, AU 39. Stats very lopsided as you can imagine but most revealing was Service Aces at 10 - 1. Earlier in the season Alabama won a set in their match vs Wildcats. Hope the team can psychologically recover from this set back. I had no expectations of defeating Kentucky but hoped for a more competitive match.

Another 5 et match win. Our efforts at aggressive serving really seems to put us in a hole at times. We had 18 serve errors and only 3 aces. TAM had 11 SE and 10 SA. We did dominate blocks, 12 - 4 and hitting % .320 - .188. That set point in set 5 was a beauty with a perfect set by Barrett and perfect timed jump by Swanson for the kill. Bell really got my attention. She had 11 kills and .429 hitting %. Some of her shot placements I thought were amazing. Several times she was able to hit between the out-stretched hands of 2 defenders for a kill.

I had watched part of a BAMA game early in the SEC season and then a portion of another game about a week ago and was impressed with the improvement though they are yet to win an SEC game. They played well yesterday. For AU, we continued to have too many serve errors. Again, I thought Barret had very good game with 44 assist, 4 serve aces, 4 kills and 11 digs. I believe Thibault has done a good job having been thrust into the libero rotation. Appears to me that Slaughter has upped her game a notch. Some tough matches coming up with Texas A&M and Kentucky. Speaking of Kentucky, I watched a good bit of their game vs Arkansas last week. Both teams are on a different level that the rest of the conference in my opinion. Guess that's why they are ranked 1 & 2 in conference.

AU vs Georgia Volleyball 10/27/2023 Great comeback 5 set win for the tigers 22-25, 18-25, 25-23, 25-18 and 15-11. The TV announcers included Nikki Chester who was a very good player at Georgia 92-95. She did the "analysis" and I thought she had very good insight and unbiased. Georgia was on a 3-match win streak with victories over Ol' Miss, TA&M and LSU. AU had a continued problem with their serve/receive game in the first 2 sets but seemed to get more settled after set 2. Set 3 had 16 ties and 8 lead changes. Opponents seem to attack Anderson a lot on their serves, and it appeared to me that AU was "shading" her somewhat in some serve situations. For Georgia, their great Middle Blocker Fisher had 16 kills while for AU Scheer continued her hot streak with 24. I tend to overlook the contributions of Jackie Barret who had 46 assist and 12 digs. Slaughter was back in the lineup but still have a couple out with injuries. Play at BAMA on Sunday at 11. I believe game is on SEC network.

Regarding Tresvik, seems I recalled CMD implying that she might see time in the pitching rotation but that has not come to fruition. Recall she pitched against us when she played at North Carolina A&T. Last season tied for 2nd on team with 9 HR and 7/7 stolen bases.

I was a bit surprised we lost a 3 set match vs Missouri on Friday. The Game yesterday was a near replay of the Oct 8 match we played vs South Carolina going 5 sets. For some reason, we are being attacked by the injury bug. Need improvement on our serve and return game. At this point in the season teams know who has the most errors returning serves, so they get targeted. Players who got my attention last night were Swanson with 6K and 10 or 11 blocks. Thibault really appeared to hustle and had 23 digs (Slaughter and Morton out), Scheer with 24 kills. We have away games next week with Georgia and BAMA.

Summary article from AU softball site: https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/10/22/softball-sweeps-to-complete-undefeated-fall-season.aspx

From the AU Softball site: https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/10/15/softball-slugs-its-way-to-sunday-doubleheader-sweep.aspx

AU DEFEATES SOUTH CAROLINA IN CLOSE MATCH 3 - 2 Prior to yesterday's game, AU had lost 7 straight matches to South Carolina. We were the victors in this 5-set match with each set decided by 2 or 3 points. SC was somewhat rested having played their previous game 1 week ago, so they had some more "game planning" time. AU had what I would call an emotional 3 set win at Florida just 2 days prior to this away game. South Carolina appeared to have more quickness. Their defense was good at extending rallies. Statistics fairly even with AU having 17 blocks to 10 for SC maybe the exception. We have a few days off prior to road trip to Tennessee who are 6 - 0 in conference play and ranked #1 in conference.

Wife and I watched last night. I felt maybe best I have seen AU play this year. I would describe them as playing with "calm composure". In particular, we only had 2 receiving errors which had been a sore point in recent games. Florida had 7. I agree about the announcers; glad I am not alone in that opinion. Florida is really missing their great setter Stucky. AU still without Bella Bell. Auburn dominated most of the statistical categories if you look at the link below. By the 3rd set, you could see a change in the look of the Gator players and coaches. https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/10/6/volleyball-no-25-tigers-pull-off-historic-upset-at-no-9-florida.aspx

Auburn basically embarrassed by Arkansas and lost in 3 straight sets. AU scored 18 - 10 and 6 points in the successive sets. We have some injuries and some players "dinged up" but we looked very disorganized. In the 3 sets, we had 18 errors vs 6 for Arkansas. A lot of difficulty handling the Arkansas serves. I am ashamed to admit that I stopped watching about half-way through the 3rd set. I hope the team can physically and mentally recover from this set back.

Defeated Ole Miss Sunday 3 - 1. Ole Miss is a "quick team" and kept a lot of balls in play, making for some exciting volleys. Their Libero I believe is tops in the conference. The announcers for the game were annoying and tended to "jabber" rather than call the action. We have a couple of players out, Kemp and Lanham. Travel to Arkansas this Wednesday. They are very good with only 2 losses to #1 Wisconsin. Tough match, especially considering quick turnaround, travel and highly ranked opponent.

From Morton's twitter page scroll down to Dec 2, 2022. Great hustle in that sequence in the game vs Creigton. She saves a ball in the back court, slides about 10 feet and recovers to fill her position and defends the next attempted kill allowing AU to get the point.

One involved a net violation on a block by Auburn. Initially I thought the call was correct but a replay from the AU side of the net made it appear that the net movement was a result of the block causing the ball to hit the net and cause the net to move without the AU player touching the net. Coach Crouch nearly blew a fuse. Additionally, late in the set AU was awarded a point on a kill due to a touch by Florida. Replay indicated the ball may not have been touched but the ball appeared to hit the end line which would have made it in bounds regardless. The point was awarded to Florida. If you have ESPN+ you can see the replay. I know I am partial, but I really have to question those calls. Very exciting game. We did better at handling the Florida service game than I thought we might. Both teams had 20 service errors. Need to put this one behind and be mentally ready to play Ol 'Miss on Sunday. They defeated Bama in 3 sets yesterday.

Next game vs Florida on Friday @ 6:30 SECN+. They have defeated 3 top 10 teams this season and this past weekend lost to #1 Wisconsin 2-3. In that game, Stucky, their excellent setter appeared to sustain a serious knee injury and is likely to be out for an extended period. Last year they defeated AU 25-23, 25-18 and 25-15. Game should provide a good measure as to where we stand vs one of the nation's top teams. I watched most of the match when they played Wisconsin and really impressed with their serving.

Rather tense, exciting game vs a good South Alabama team last night. Watched on ESPN+. AU won first set 27 - 25. South Alabama won the next two sets 23- 25 and 19 - 25. the 4th set was a doozy. AU was down by 7 points on 2 occasions, early in the game. Faught back to win 25 - 23. Took control of the final set and won 15 - 8. Anderson with 26 kills. South Alabama, to me, appeared to have a lot of quickness, much like MTSU. Sara Morton was in street cloths and Sydney Handel got some playing time and contributed 10 digs. https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/9/14/volleyball-no-24-tigers-outlast-jaguars-in-a-five-set-thriller.aspx

Last night AU defeated Charleston Southern (5-5) 3 sets to 1. AU lost opening set 23-25. In that set, we had a 7 point lead during the mid-point of the set only to allow Southern to claw back in and win the set. AU basically dominated the last 3 sets. It should be mentioned that AU is without two key players as Anderson and Bella Bell have been out with illness/injury.

Lost to Middle Tennessee in 4 sets. We had 16 service errors in the 4 sets. Anderson did not play due to illness. https://auburntigers.com/sports/womens-volleyball/archives

VB vs Florida State https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/9/3/volleyball-refuse-to-lose-tigers-knock-off-florida-state-in-four-sets.aspx

Sunday 9/3/2023 Auburn Volleyball defeats Florida State in 4 sets......30-28, 25-21, 19-25, 25-23. The last set of the match was very exciting, even following the stats on computer. In the early stage of the 4th set, FSU went on a 6 point run and maintained a fairly comfortable 3+ point lead up to the score of 21 -18. Auburn then put together a 6 point run to flip the script at 21 - 24. FSU then made a 2 point run to make it 23 -24 but AU got the next score to close out the victor at FSU 23 AU 25. For FSU, Koenig had an amazing 20 kills. For AU Anderson 15 kills followed by Scheer at 14 and Bell at 13. Both teams had 8 serving errors for the match and 5 serving aces. That was a character-building comeback in the final set.

Defeated SMU on 9/2/2023. SMU had defeated FSU the previous day in a closely contested 3 set match. Auburn played 11 players from their 18 player roster.......and won 3 sets to 1. The sets won by AU. The sets won by AU were tightly contested with the largest margin of victory being 25 - 20. https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/9/2/volleyball-scheers-18-kills-powers-tigers-past-smu.aspx

Early in season and there have been a number of combinations enter the matches to give players an opportunity to show what they can do. We have total roster of 18 players. To date, 5 have not seen action ( 2 Fr. 1 So and 1 R-So, 1 Jr). Of the 14 players who have played, there are seven who have played at least 7 sets ( 4 So, 1 Jr, 1 Sr, 1 Gr). Currently, Anderson and Bell (So and Sr) lead in kills, Kemp and Swanson ( S0 and Gr) lead in blocks while Morton and Anderson (So and So) lead in digs. No way to know how the season will play out but a lot of the current success appears to be due to the play of some players who may be part of the team for a couple of more years. Good contribution from a number of transfers. Games this weekend vs SMU and Florida State will give better pitcher of where we stand.

AU vs Coppin State Defeated Coppin State 3sets to 1. Coppin State has enrolment just under 3000. They do not have the player height of Auburn but have some impressive players and appear well coached; Williams and Stafford were especially impressive. The most disappointing aspect of the match to me was the 23 service errors committed by Auburn compared to 6 by Coppin State. Obviously, we did some good things, but this will need to be cleaned up. Play 2 games today.